Hey, thanks for the suggestions! Lots of them are quite viable, so I'll address them one at a time. It does seem like a lot of these effects are interchangeable, though; most changes would be simply switching one for of card draw/mana fixing/kill spell for another.
Merchant Scroll is a common in Homelands. Pauper High Tide would kind of suck without it.
Card draw/filtering spells -- I'm already playing Deep Analysis, and the other stuff like Preordain could be decent for smoothing out draws. However, this deck has no problem keeping its hand full and actually needs more business spells if anything; so much mana is spent on mana fixing and library manipulation I don't know if we can afford much more.
Rend Flesh -- I've been considering this card for a while now. It's more flexible than Executioner's Capsule, more easily tutorable, and can be used to blow up Child of Alara. In it goes!
Relic of Progenitus -- We actually love our graveyard more than most decks we want to hate out! Bojuka Bog and all of the ways to tutor/reuse Nihil Spellbomb have been sufficient so far. Good idea, though; graveyard hate is awesome.
Mana Fixing -- Panoramas are worth considering, actually, since at least hitting G/B/U is crucial to this deck. I'll throw a few in the deck IRL and see how they go. However, Child nukes Signets and Fertile Ground, and I have an unnatural aversion to bouncelands... I've Capsized and Strip Mined too many to feel comfortable playing them myself. Speaking of which:
Strip Mine -- Could be extremely useful if the aforementioned panoramas solidify the manabase. Mana is usually fine, but after so many games, I have lost two to mana screw straight-up.
I haven't been a big fan of Faith's Fetters-type removal in this deck because of Child, but now that I think about it that reasoning might be fallacious. Lignify is savage tech, so something like that might be worth squeezing in here. But why you hatin on Opaline Bracers? That card rocks. I can't think of any pump enchantment I'd rather add in its place except maybe Rancor, which may not actually do enough. Bracers lets Civic Wayfinder and friends close out games even against creature removal.
Breath of Life is really interesting. Part of me wishes you didn't suggest so many cool cards so I wouldn't have to figure out so many things to cut.
Looter il-Kor and Reclaim have been tested, but we don't really need them. We have tons of good card draw and recursion as-is, but I suppose you could swap out some for others and accomplish the same function. Probably just a matter of preference. Ashes to Ashes is really good and might come aboard at some point. Urborg Uprising is just too redundant and expensive, and if we want more of this I'd probably add Reaping the Graves first.
Other equipments -- all of them are really good in a vacuum (and all of them are in my cube), but none of them seem useful in this deck. Most of our creatures are tiny and aren't worth killing/making unblockable. Whispersilk Cloak would be good on a fattie for closing out the game, but that's about it.
If you're considering building a version of this deck, I'd recommend it. Even though it has a heavy reliance on a few select staples, it's highly customizable. Plus, how much would it actually cost to build? $28.23 from the ground up, not counting basic lands, according to deckstats.net!
Also, deck name change. It reflects the nature of the deck pretty accurately.
d0su, this is awesome. It inspired me to make a totally common EDH pile. I'm using Ramirez as my general right now and it's got (for the time being) the same gameplan as your deck does. I wan to test it online more, but it seems promising.
May I just say this is single handedly, out of all the things I've seen playing magic, the coolest deck I've ever seen. Honestly, it's like you read my mind. For weeks now I've been wanting an EDH deck, but seeing as I'm currently working minimum wage and netting 10 hours a week TOPS I don't have the money to buy a new EDH deck. I have a Child of Alara and have considered making a deck out of it, but of all the lists I've seen and even my own deck attempts I haven't seen one I can afford. until now. This is absolutely amazing. I cannot even wait to get started building my own version of this. I thank and congradulate you for building this masterpiece. this is amazing.
I feel like you're pretty much correct in your thoughts on my thoughts. I've found two other cards I think might be worth including Fierce Empath can fetch a high cost card, but I don't know if it's relevant. Syphon Mind is an excellent draw card spell in multiplayer (I usually play 5-6 person games, so it's making it into my list).
I built this deck up on MTGO last night and gave it a spin. I ended up winning a 4-player table with a Crypt Rats + Capsize combo, which had me laughing for hours afterward. I really like how this deck forces me to play politics in order to actually kill someone. Normally, I dominate tables through sheer card power, but that's impossible with this deck. You definitely deserve kudos on such a beautifully made deck.
That said, I have a couple questions on card choices. First, Horizon Spellbomb vs. Armillary Sphere. They fulfill the same function, but the Spellbomb requires a green mana to get 2 cards out of it. In exchange for requiring G, you get one random card plus a land instead of 2 land, and it's fetchable with Trinket Mage. The thing is, since you're running artifact lands, I'd probably just fetch up whatever artifact land I needed instead of going through the spellbomb. This seems like a pretty even matchup, so I was wondering if you had any experience with the Sphere.
Second, Rampant Growth sticks out like a sore thumb. Have you tried Far Wanderings or Farhaven Elf instead? It seemed pretty trivial to achieve threshold for the Far Wanderings, and there's not much difference between going from 2 to 4 and from 3 to 5 in this deck. Farhaven Elf is a Rampant Growth with a body attached, which seems like it'd be a natural fit for the deck.
Also, my paper metagame has a Uril deck running loose, so I was wondering if you had any advice for dealing with him? The only edicts I can think of in pauper are Diabolic and Innocent Blood and we don't get any unconditional sweepers (besides Child). I suppose I could run more counterspells, but there has to be a more elegant solution.
I'm working on an idea that I think is the Holy Grail of Magic theory, the unifying thread that ties everything together. I'll share my preliminary hypothesis for peer review.
Please don't take this too seriously.
----------------------------------- Playing Magic is a dance with the players involved struggling for a position of advantage. Let's just jump right in: how do we objectively measure advantage in Magic? As Pat Chapin would say, having more and better options is the point of Magic: it's how you win games.
All that may be true, but what does that even mean? What exactly is an "option" and how do you tell if one option is better than another? Amassing more "cards" than an opponent (Card Advantage) is one method of increasing your option advantage. But do tokens count as cards, and are all cards worth equal value? Similarly, being faster than your opponent (Tempo Advantage) can provide you with more options. But, without already knowing the outcome of match, how can you really tell who is ahead in tempo? Is the Azusa player with 15 lands and 5 life ahead, or the mono-red burn player with 4 lands and 40 life going to win the race?
Understanding Magic boils down to how we quantify these variables, but when our units of measure are as vauge as "cards" and "tempi," Magic theory isn't very practical. In 2010, AJ Sacher and Mike Flores independently arrived at the Next Level(tm) of Magic theory. Rather than measure things in cards or whatever, they proposed a new theory: whoever has effectively gained the most "mana's worth" of effects is heavily favored to win the game. From here, you can assign values to certain effects (drawing a card is worth U, destroying a creature is worth BR, etc.) and simply add the effects together. However, even this theory is full of corner cases and exceptions that have yet to be addressed.
Pondering this situation has led me to an interesting hypothesis. The card unit and the mana unit are too vague to be consistently useful. Instead, I propose that the best unit of measure is the American $0.01 penny. Whoever accumulates the greatest "money advantage" over the course of the game is heavily favored to win. I mean, if you think about it, it's no secret that the most competitive decks cost loads of cash to build, and if the manabase supports it, you can often build a very good deck by simply throwing all of the money rares into a deck together (a la Mythic in Standard, Team America in Legacy, and most Vintage decks period). You can accumulate money advantage by using your own expensive cards or answering opponents' cards with cheaper solutions.
Examples: when you cast a Jace the Mindsculptor, you are +$90. When you cast Lotus Cobra, you are +$15, and when someone destroys it, you are -$15 again; unless the Cobra generates virtual money advantage before it is answered, you are back to square one. It makes sense, and it even feels right. When your opponent goes through a playset of Lion's Eye Diamonds in an attempt to kill you with Tendrils of Agony but you stop it with a lonely $0.75 Trickbind, the joke's on them, right? That's because, at that moment, you have generated so much money advantage that it feels like you are $200 richer than you really are.
Remember this the next time you decide to sink a fortune on Dark Confidant -- that $15 dude will generate some significant money advantage when you cast it, but you could generate the same advantage by caring a little less about your mana curve and a little more about your money curve. Time is money, less money is less time, and if a cheap card takes less time than an expensive card, then Sign in Blood is actually lot faster than Bob.
Pauper is the future of Magic. Play to win or don't play at all.
-----------------------------------
I did lose a game the other day, but I won three more in the meantime. Once, I managed to trump Endless Swarm (epic spells are REALLY hard to deal with) by thinning my deck of all the basic lands with Sakura-Tribe Elder and setting up a 22-mana loop with Child, Izzet Chronarch, Disturbed Burial, and Terminate. I'm not trying to blow things out of proportion: this deck is far from unbeatable and has severe weaknesses, but until people play more graveyard hate or bust out some faster decks, Child will just keep crushing dreams!
Quote from Burntigrbil »
d0su, this is awesome. It inspired me to make a totally common EDH pile. I'm using Ramirez as my general right now and it's got (for the time being) the same gameplan as your deck does. I wan to test it online more, but it seems promising.
Ah, the pirate as a general! Classy. I'm leaning on Child's sweeper ability to shore up some weaknesses, so your deck seems even more challenging to pilot. Be sure to keep us updated on how it works out!
Oubliette is amazing, btw. I never realized that card is common.
Quote from SaintRileyJ »
May I just say this is single handedly, out of all the things I've seen playing magic, the coolest deck I've ever seen. Honestly, it's like you read my mind. For weeks now I've been wanting an EDH deck, but seeing as I'm currently working minimum wage and netting 10 hours a week TOPS I don't have the money to buy a new EDH deck. I have a Child of Alara and have considered making a deck out of it, but of all the lists I've seen and even my own deck attempts I haven't seen one I can afford. until now. This is absolutely amazing. I cannot even wait to get started building my own version of this. I thank and congradulate you for building this masterpiece. this is amazing.
Aw, thanks. It sounds like we struck gold here! I'm really enjoying this deck and I hope you do too.
Quote from LittlestMorte »
I built this deck up on MTGO last night and gave it a spin. I ended up winning a 4-player table with a Crypt Rats + Capsize combo, which had me laughing for hours afterward. I really like how this deck forces me to play politics in order to actually kill someone. Normally, I dominate tables through sheer card power, but that's impossible with this deck. You definitely deserve kudos on such a beautifully made deck.
That said, I have a couple questions on card choices. First, Horizon Spellbomb vs. Armillary Sphere. They fulfill the same function, but the Spellbomb requires a green mana to get 2 cards out of it. In exchange for requiring G, you get one random card plus a land instead of 2 land, and it's fetchable with Trinket Mage. The thing is, since you're running artifact lands, I'd probably just fetch up whatever artifact land I needed instead of going through the spellbomb. This seems like a pretty even matchup, so I was wondering if you had any experience with the Sphere.
Second, Rampant Growth sticks out like a sore thumb. Have you tried Far Wanderings or Farhaven Elf instead? It seemed pretty trivial to achieve threshold for the Far Wanderings, and there's not much difference between going from 2 to 4 and from 3 to 5 in this deck. Farhaven Elf is a Rampant Growth with a body attached, which seems like it'd be a natural fit for the deck.
Also, my paper metagame has a Uril deck running loose, so I was wondering if you had any advice for dealing with him? The only edicts I can think of in pauper are Diabolic and Innocent Blood and we don't get any unconditional sweepers (besides Child). I suppose I could run more counterspells, but there has to be a more elegant solution.
Uril is a big problem, to be sure. Countermagic and Edicts are the most obvious solutions, but don't forget mass enchantment removal; Reverent Silence, Patrician's Scorn, Allay, Aura Fracture, etc. If you can counter or RFG Rancor, cards like these are absolute beatings to most Uril players -- Uril himself doesn't have trample, and we can chump all day long until we can pop Child a few times and make Uril uncastable.
However, if Uril is just focusing on you from the start, I don't really know how you can reliably stop it without changing the deck up a ton. We have a weak early game and a powerful mid- to late-game and are forced to play poltics a lot, like you said.
This theory is awesome! It sounds so true too. Actually, come to think of it, mono red decks have been operating on this theory for years. Unfortunately, my playgroup uses heavy proxies so even if I crush them with a pauper deck I'm still down on money.
don't forget mass enchantment removal; Reverent Silence, Patrician's Scorn, Allay, Aura Fracture, etc. If you can counter or RFG Rancor, cards like these are absolute beatings to most Uril players -- Uril himself doesn't have trample, and we can chump all day long until we can pop Child a few times and make Uril uncastable.
It never even occurred to me that there might be mass enchantment destruction in the common slot. Patrician's Scorn went right in, and I think Ray of Revelation will be the next one if I need more enchantment hate. Also, mass enchantment sweepers went in the rest of my decks too. Thanks for the heads-up on this one.
I've ran a couple games with Far Wanderings in place of Rampant Growth and that card is quite strong. Recurring it mid-game for +3 lands a shot seems to speed the deck up quite a bit, allowing more recursion per turn. Plus, it's tutorable for by all the 3-cmc transmuters.
What about Executioner's Capsule in place of either Aether Spellbomb or Journey to Nowhere? It'd give Trinket Mage and Sanctum Gargoyle a little more utility.
EDIT:
Apparently, the deck is strong enough to get me called a douchebag :rolleyes:. I'm playing this against Arcanis and Hazezon Tamar and the whole game I'm pounding on the Arcanis player because I figure recurring Child pretty much solves the Hazezon problem single-handedly. On turn 18, I Fireball the Arcanis player for exactly his life total (12) and despite the fact he has like 8 blue open and 7 cards in hand, he can't answer it and calls me a douche for burning him out. I tried to explain to him I was just trying to get it down to 1v1 vs a token deck but he apparently didn't understand the concept of threat assessment and thought I was just hating on him for no reason.
Also, Darksteel Plate is a PITA to deal with. I'm thinking of adding a Dust to Dust just to answer this card.
How about Expedition Map? It's an amazing Land Fetcher. Also, I think It needs more sac outlets. I know they are hard to find as commons, but Child demands to have those in his deck.
I've ran a couple games with Far Wanderings in place of Rampant Growth and that card is quite strong. Recurring it mid-game for +3 lands a shot seems to speed the deck up quite a bit, allowing more recursion per turn. Plus, it's tutorable for by all the 3-cmc transmuters.
What about Executioner's Capsule in place of either Aether Spellbomb or Journey to Nowhere? It'd give Trinket Mage and Sanctum Gargoyle a little more utility.
I've ran a couple games with Far Wanderings in place of Rampant Growth and that card is quite strong. Recurring it mid-game for +3 lands a shot seems to speed the deck up quite a bit, allowing more recursion per turn. Plus, it's tutorable for by all the 3-cmc transmuters.
What about Executioner's Capsule in place of either Aether Spellbomb or Journey to Nowhere? It'd give Trinket Mage and Sanctum Gargoyle a little more utility.
Far Wanderings could be really good, since this deck ramps and fixes in Stage 1, kills stuff in Stage 2, and only actually starts to dominate in Stage 3. Far Wanderings helps us get to Buyback mana quickly! I'm a little leery of filling up the deck with too much 3cc stuff because it can get clunky with countermagic and such, so we'll just have to be careful.
I actually just cut Executioner's Capsule in favor of Rend Flesh, which essentially costs the same mana but is more versatile and lets us pop Child of Alara. Capsule was okay, but I was never really thrilled when I played it. On the other hand, Aether Spellbomb has been a great rattlesnake for me and bought tons of time versus the likes of Skithirix and Rafiq, and Journey to Nowhere does really funny things with Capsize.
I never noticed it, but Darksteel Plate is a NIGHTMARE for this deck! Ugh, I hope no one in my group picks it up, or I'll have to make adjustments as well. And LOL at the MUC player calling the pauper player a douchebag. Although, when I was playing this deck Friday and started hearing the other players sigh because they were running out of cards in hand and stuff to do, I literally thought, "Alright, they're right where I want them, now I can start winning this!" If wanting to lock them out makes me a DB, then I guess I'll take the hit.
Quote from ilcapo »
How about Expedition Map? It's an amazing Land Fetcher. Also, I think It needs more sac outlets. I know they are hard to find as commons, but Child demands to have those in his deck.
You are right about the sac outlets. I slipped on that one. I should know better than anybody since i also run an Child of Alara deck...and the only permanets that i run are creatures...but I have a good reanimation package...since Child itself demands it anyways.
Well, how about Worthy Cause? I think it's common.
You are right about the sac outlets. I slipped on that one. I should know better than anybody since i also run an Child of Alara deck...and the only permanets that i run are creatures...but I have a good reanimation package...since Child itself demands it anyways.
Well, how about Worthy Cause? I think it's common.
I did lose a game the other day, but I won three more in the meantime. Once, I managed to trump Endless Swarm (epic spells are REALLY hard to deal with) by thinning my deck of all the basic lands with Sakura-Tribe Elder and setting up a 22-mana loop with Child, Izzet Chronarch, Disturbed Burial, and Terminate. I'm not trying to blow things out of proportion: this deck is far from unbeatable and has severe weaknesses, but until people play more graveyard hate or bust out some faster decks, Child will just keep crushing dreams.
Wanted to say props for the deck, again, and that decks like this need far more attention in the word of EDH. Not every deck needs to be full of random cards now worth $40 (oh, when Time Spiral was a dollar bin rare)...EDH was a great way to make decks with super good older cards no one else really cared about (read dollar bin rares) so you'd often make killings on trades from standard/extended players when many of them dump their collections to gear up for a new season. Unfortunately, that's changing, but it's important to notice that it's still very possible to build $50 decks like this puppy!
Also, d0su totally politic-ed away a Reito Lantern - beyond super huge for the crusher of hope.
I'll also admit I sorta screwed the pooch for the guy playing my Momir Vig Snakes Tribal since he was all set to go with Seshiro the Anointed and Steely Resolve before resolving endless swarm...but I found answers to both....the sheer number of cards in hand, along with 3/3 snakes instead of 1/1 snakes, would have ended things rather quickly for everyone.
Hope you bring this one by again, people are very interested in seeing it in action again.
Re: Oubliette - yeah, stupid good. Definitely needs a spot in this.
EDIT: Sad face nath'd.
(Yes I left the window open for 30 minutes)
I'm am easily up to 10 cards I thought would be amazing for this deck that turned out not to be commons.:-/ Maybe Ashnod's Altar for a little combo potential? You'll have to play the ugly Chronicles one though.
for mass enchantment removal, is Spring Cleaning worth running? I'm not sure honestly... I suppose versus other Pauper decks it is, since your mana curve is probably closer in that setting than against regular EDH decks. but I figured it was a neat option.
I still think that Vivisection is awesome in here. I mean, it's no Momentous Fall, but still, Wrath plus Draw 3 seems really, really good. Also recurrable via Mnemonic Wall, though that's really, really slow.
I'm also thinking that you could run the Saga cycling lands (Slippery Karst and friends), and then stuff like Tilling Treefolk and Cartographer are both card advantage and/or fixing. It might at least be better than Horizon Spellbomb?
Aftershock also seems like really versatile removal that you won't mind recurring.
EDIT: Sylvok Replica? Gets itself in the graveyard, you've got multiple ways to recur it?
I still think that Vivisection is awesome in here. I mean, it's no Momentous Fall, but still, Wrath plus Draw 3 seems really, really good. Also recurrable via Mnemonic Wall, though that's really, really slow.
I'm also thinking that you could run the Saga cycling lands (Slippery Karst and friends), and then stuff like Tilling Treefolk and Cartographer are both card advantage and/or fixing. It might at least be better than Horizon Spellbomb?
Aftershock also seems like really versatile removal that you won't mind recurring.
EDIT: Sylvok Replica? Gets itself in the graveyard, you've got multiple ways to recur it?
Vivisection is good here, but the problem is we have access to so many *good* cards that we have to forgo a lot of playables. My argument against Vivisection is this: I almost always have close to 7 cards in hand when playing this deck, and I'm never at a loss for stuff to do. The effect Vivisection provides is superb, but this slot would be better served with Primal Growth, for which I am trying to find room. Primal Growth costs less mana to cast, gives us more mana to work with, and actually gets a card out of our hand so we can get full value out of our other 2-for-1's and 3-for-1's.
However, I really like the idea of Urza cycling lands. Coming into play tapped isn't that big of a deal, and the cycling ability gives us something to do on turn 2 so our hand isn't awkward with a lot of 3-drops. I will at least add the B/U/G ones. Tilling Treefolk and maybe Cartographer might then become playable. However, I'll probably include what I can of the Urza cycle of cycling cyclers even if these guys don't make it.
Sylvok Replica was cut from the original build back in this post. We have a plethora of answers to artifacts/enchantments, and Replica was just sort of underwhelming. Aftershock is quite good, and the only reason it has been omitted is because double red can be difficult to obtain in a timely/efficient manner.
I don't get all the hate on Horizon Spellbomb, though. It can grab green mana (which most other fixers cannot do), it gets a card out of our hand early on, and is a much better topdeck in the late game than something like Armillary Sphere. I think many people don't give it a fair chance because it is immediately compared to Sol Ring and Krosan Tusker. It's not as good as these obviously, and I'll be the first to admit I never considered it until this deck, but it's actually been quite playable.
My list of possible cuts for Primal Growth: Voidmage Apprentice (great effect, just so expensive) Cadaver Imp (also good, but a little redundant and mana-intensive) Opaline Bracers (gets destroyed irrevocably by Child, but it's better with fewer opponents and can close out games) Tilling Treefolk (if it ends up being bad)
Thanks for all your continued interest in this, guys! I'm still enjoying continued success with the deck -- this deck takes FOREVER to actually kill someone, but gah it can be brutal. Ubershaum's playgroup seemed pretty awesome, so I might go sling some commons around over there again at some point in the near future.
I wouldn't say that I"m hating on Spellbomb, since I've played a lot with the card, and it's definitely a solid roleplayer. It just seems like there should be something better It's definitely better than Armillary Sphere most of the time, and it's definitely fine when you expect the game to go on forever.
It seems to me like just drawing cards would be better most of the time, even though you can't guarantee that you'll hit exactly the color that you want. Thinking about it, though, Treefolk costs almost as much, finds two lands, but costs another 2-4 if you want to draw cards, so I guess I'm just being unfair, right?
Could you add an arbitrary infinite combo to this deck? It seems like there are a number of things you could do with Lifespark Spellbomb to just win the game, and you have enough "tutors" in transmute effects to find the various pieces. Something like...
Lifespark Spellbomb, Dawn's Reflection, Freed from the Real? Or Trace of Abundance/Fertile Ground if you can put it on a 5color land.
EDIT: Spore Burst might be good for making chump blockers, or swarming the board later in the game to speed up your clock.
However, we definitely need a way to speed things along, especially if Jungle Weaver and Opaline Bracers are on the chopping block. I'm going to go way back and mention the 1cc transmute card you suggested on page 1: Dizzy Spell. Gah that card is bad, but maybe if I view it purely as a tutor and ignore the -3/-0 effect it will be okay. It does everything Trinket Mage can do while letting us tutor or chain tutor into Fireball, which until this point we had to simply topdeck. Now in the late game, these can all turn into functional copies of Fireball: Dizzy Spell Merchant Scroll Mystical Teachings Muddle the Mixture Dimir House Guard
I've been playing with Tilling Treefolk, and it's been okay. It always did something, but it wasn't ever a gamebreaker or anything. I used it to get back my Plains after a guy blew it up, but I could have used Darksteel Ingot to the same effect. I might cut it eventually, but it seems like we could do a lot worse -- seems on par with Civic Wayfinder in that regard.
I played a two-and-a-half hour game on Cockatrice yesterday, and after blowing up the board 8 or so times, it was down to a 1-v-1 basis and I was finally starting to take over with 20+ mana, Capsize, and Disturbed Burial. My opponent and I ended up calling it a draw due to time constraints, but the fact he was losing after he played Praetor's Counsel really made him respect our favorite rarity symbol! (Far Wanderings continues to be amazing)
Quote from Bloodymerc »
Splicers in New Phyrexia are going to be a cycle, so Maul Splicer isn't the only one.
I hope that at least one of them makes the cut! I'm going to be so bummed if they end up being overpriced pieces of garbage lol.
In light of this and the recent "budget EDH challenges" I see all over the internet, it would seem that budget EDH could be surging in popularity. Here's hoping!
So I've been playing this deck off-and-on since the last time I've posted and I've been enjoying it greatly. The games are always long, drawn out affairs with a ton of interaction and back-and-forth moments that to me are exactly what EDH is about. It's an incredibly subtle deck, in that since there are no power plays (besides Fireball), the pilot has to apply exactly the right force at exactly the right moment in order to succeed. It's quite challenging. I also have a surprisingly high win record with it, and a ton of great stories come from this deck. (Like the time the a Uril deck with Runes of the Dues and Bear Umbra on it cast Armageddon, killed everyone else, and then ran Uril into Child, losing the auras to Child and later the Uril to Diabolic Edict. Child then beat down Uril from 20 with a Dimir House Guard because Uril never drew another land.)
On to the deck.
Have you considered Arcane Denial? The few counterspells that are already in the deck have been pretty clutch, and having a 1U hard counter seems like a fantastic idea.
I ended up cutting Opaline Bracers because they just didn't stay in play long enough to matter and they're a pain to get back. It was pretty fun to slap them on Sanctum Gargoyle and laugh at all the 6/6 dragons, but ultimately they just didn't pull their weight. The easiest way to kill someone is with general damage anyway, which makes me think maybe Rancor might be worth a look. Probably not though.
Oddly enough, I've found myself not liking Rhystic Study in this deck. It generally draws far too much attention to me and that's the last thing I want while playing the deck.
As far as NPH goes, I didn't see a lot that impressed me. Maul Splicer looks pretty solid, but the other splicers are all extremely meh. Mycosynth Wellspring seems like an auto-include, probably over Prophetic Prism. Remember the Fallen might have applications, as getting back a creature and a spellbomb seems reasonable. Other than that though, I don't think anything else is even worth consideration.
I've been playing with Tilling Treefolk, and it's been okay. It always did something, but it wasn't ever a gamebreaker or anything. I used it to get back my Plains after a guy blew it up, but I could have used Darksteel Ingot to the same effect. I might cut it eventually, but it seems like we could do a lot worse -- seems on par with Civic Wayfinder in that regard.
I played a two-and-a-half hour game on Cockatrice yesterday, and after blowing up the board 8 or so times, it was down to a 1-v-1 basis and I was finally starting to take over with 20+ mana, Capsize, and Disturbed Burial. My opponent and I ended up calling it a draw due to time constraints, but the fact he was losing after he played Praetor's Counsel really made him respect our favorite rarity symbol! (Far Wanderings continues to be amazing)
I hope that at least one of them makes the cut! I'm going to be so bummed if they end up being overpriced pieces of garbage lol.
In light of this and the recent "budget EDH challenges" I see all over the internet, it would seem that budget EDH could be surging in popularity. Here's hoping!
It seems that in his article he is only allowing 100 percent pauper decks meaning that your General had to of been printed at common. I think that would be pretty awful for the format because when your general is just a 4/4 vanilla or french vanilla you are pretty much going to be playing pauper highlander.
So I've been playing this deck off-and-on since the last time I've posted and I've been enjoying it greatly. The games are always long, drawn out affairs with a ton of interaction and back-and-forth moments that to me are exactly what EDH is about. It's an incredibly subtle deck, in that since there are no power plays (besides Fireball), the pilot has to apply exactly the right force at exactly the right moment in order to succeed. It's quite challenging. I also have a surprisingly high win record with it, and a ton of great stories come from this deck. (Like the time the a Uril deck with Runes of the Dues and Bear Umbra on it cast Armageddon, killed everyone else, and then ran Uril into Child, losing the auras to Child and later the Uril to Diabolic Edict. Child then beat down Uril from 20 with a Dimir House Guard because Uril never drew another land.)
...
As far as NPH goes, I didn't see a lot that impressed me. Maul Splicer looks pretty solid, but the other splicers are all extremely meh. Mycosynth Wellspring seems like an auto-include, probably over Prophetic Prism. Remember the Fallen might have applications, as getting back a creature and a spellbomb seems reasonable. Other than that though, I don't think anything else is even worth consideration.
Awesome kill against Uril. I'm having similar results -- very long games (about 2.5 hours on average), very political/strategic play, and a more than acceptable win-loss ratio. This deck is definitely going to stick around for a while. I'm also pleased to see we've come to similar conclusions as far as card choices are concerned!
Fireball has sort of overshadowed Opaline Bracers, so I think it's time to take it out. Arcane Denial is one of my favorite cards, so it could me a fine replacement. I considered Rancor before, but IDK if it does enough.
Rhystic Study, however, has been great for me. Because Child blows it away, I usually only draw 3 or 4 cards off it, but that's spectacular as far as I'm concerned. I can understand it drawing unwanted attention, though -- one of the guys in my old playgroup freaking HATED Rhystic Study and by extension anyone who played it! Well, maybe not that last bit, but still... I'll keep playing it because I *heart* drawing cards.
The other Splicers really let me down. Maul Splicer and Mycosynth Wellspring might make the cut, though. Splicer is a decent finisher/rattlesnake, and Wellspring is solid CA and mana fixing. Wellspring vs. Prism is quite the competition; the cantrip makes me a little biased toward Prism for the same reason I like Horizon Spellbomb over Armillary Sphere, but then again Prism isn't really CA. Playtest time!
On Tilling Treefolk: this guy may be here to stay. Again, it's not amazing or anything, but the more I think about it, the more I like having a potential out to Armageddon. He usually cantrips, anyway. Once again, I find out that Carlos was on the money.
On Fireball: I'm replacing it with Rolling Thunder. Double red makes Thunder difficult to cast, but since we don't really want to cast it until quite late in the game anyway, it shouldn't be a problem. Thunder also has a CMC of 2, meaning it can be tutored for via Mystical Teachings, Muddle the Mixture, Merchant Scroll, and Dimir House Guard. We'll see how it goes, but I think it'll be great.
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It seems that in his article he is only allowing 100 percent pauper decks meaning that your General had to of been printed at common. I think that would be pretty awful for the format because when your general is just a 4/4 vanilla or french vanilla you are pretty much going to be playing pauper highlander.
Yeah, I sent Adam Styborski an email about it and he responded saying that a lot of other people said the same thing, and that he planned to address the issue in a follow-up article. I'm looking forward to it.
After the 5-player FFA game we played yesterday, my friend said "I'm not going to play Magic if someone else is playing Child of Alara." (LOL!) I systematically Fireballed everyone else out of the game, then he made me promise not to do the same to him. So I dropped an Eldrazi and some other fatties, and he spent all his resources getting rid of those. Then I started to Capsize his lands and he scooped. Dreams crushed.
Card draw/filtering spells -- I'm already playing Deep Analysis, and the other stuff like Preordain could be decent for smoothing out draws. However, this deck has no problem keeping its hand full and actually needs more business spells if anything; so much mana is spent on mana fixing and library manipulation I don't know if we can afford much more.
Rend Flesh -- I've been considering this card for a while now. It's more flexible than Executioner's Capsule, more easily tutorable, and can be used to blow up Child of Alara. In it goes!
Relic of Progenitus -- We actually love our graveyard more than most decks we want to hate out! Bojuka Bog and all of the ways to tutor/reuse Nihil Spellbomb have been sufficient so far. Good idea, though; graveyard hate is awesome.
Mana Fixing -- Panoramas are worth considering, actually, since at least hitting G/B/U is crucial to this deck. I'll throw a few in the deck IRL and see how they go. However, Child nukes Signets and Fertile Ground, and I have an unnatural aversion to bouncelands... I've Capsized and Strip Mined too many to feel comfortable playing them myself. Speaking of which:
Strip Mine -- Could be extremely useful if the aforementioned panoramas solidify the manabase. Mana is usually fine, but after so many games, I have lost two to mana screw straight-up.
I haven't been a big fan of Faith's Fetters-type removal in this deck because of Child, but now that I think about it that reasoning might be fallacious. Lignify is savage tech, so something like that might be worth squeezing in here. But why you hatin on Opaline Bracers? That card rocks. I can't think of any pump enchantment I'd rather add in its place except maybe Rancor, which may not actually do enough. Bracers lets Civic Wayfinder and friends close out games even against creature removal.
Breath of Life is really interesting. Part of me wishes you didn't suggest so many cool cards so I wouldn't have to figure out so many things to cut.
Looter il-Kor and Reclaim have been tested, but we don't really need them. We have tons of good card draw and recursion as-is, but I suppose you could swap out some for others and accomplish the same function. Probably just a matter of preference. Ashes to Ashes is really good and might come aboard at some point. Urborg Uprising is just too redundant and expensive, and if we want more of this I'd probably add Reaping the Graves first.
Other equipments -- all of them are really good in a vacuum (and all of them are in my cube), but none of them seem useful in this deck. Most of our creatures are tiny and aren't worth killing/making unblockable. Whispersilk Cloak would be good on a fattie for closing out the game, but that's about it.
Also, deck name change. It reflects the nature of the deck pretty accurately.
Draft my Mono-Blue Cube!
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Artifact: 11
1 AEther Spellbomb
1 Bonesplitter
1 Cranial Plating
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Dimir Signet
1 Mistvein Borderpost
1 Neurok Stealthsuit
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
1 Whispersilk Cloak
Creature: 22
1 Cadaver Imp
1 Cavern Harpy
1 Crypt Rats
1 Dimir House Guard
1 Dimir Infiltrator
1 Drift of Phantasms
1 Gravedigger
1 Jhessian Zombies
1 Leaden Myr
1 Looter il-Kor
1 Man-o'-War
1 Mnemonic Wall
1 Moriok Replica
1 Mulldrifter
1 Ninja of the Deep Hours
1 Sea Gate Oracle
1 Silver Myr
1 Tidehollow Strix
1 Trinket Mage
1 Twisted Abomination
1 Ulamog's Crusher
1 Voidmage Apprentice
1 Aura Flux
1 Eel Umbra
1 Endless Scream
1 Helm of the Ghastlord
1 Mystic Remora
1 Ophidian Eye
1 Oubliette
1 Pestilence
1 Rhystic Study
1 Seal of Doom
Instant: 16
1 Brainstorm
1 Capsize
1 Condescend
1 Counterspell
1 Death Denied
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Exclude
1 Faerie Trickery
1 Grim Harvest
1 Muddle the Mixture
1 Mystical Teachings
1 Perplex
1 Recoil
1 Rend Flesh
1 Soul Manipulation
1 Terror
1 Barren Moor
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Dimir Aqueduct
15 Island
1 Lonely Sandbar
1 Seat of the Synod
14 Swamp
1 Vault of Whispers
Sorcery: 5
1 Ashes to Ashes
1 Cruel Edict
1 Deep Analysis
1 Disturbed Burial
1 Scarscale Ritual
That said, I have a couple questions on card choices. First, Horizon Spellbomb vs. Armillary Sphere. They fulfill the same function, but the Spellbomb requires a green mana to get 2 cards out of it. In exchange for requiring G, you get one random card plus a land instead of 2 land, and it's fetchable with Trinket Mage. The thing is, since you're running artifact lands, I'd probably just fetch up whatever artifact land I needed instead of going through the spellbomb. This seems like a pretty even matchup, so I was wondering if you had any experience with the Sphere.
Second, Rampant Growth sticks out like a sore thumb. Have you tried Far Wanderings or Farhaven Elf instead? It seemed pretty trivial to achieve threshold for the Far Wanderings, and there's not much difference between going from 2 to 4 and from 3 to 5 in this deck. Farhaven Elf is a Rampant Growth with a body attached, which seems like it'd be a natural fit for the deck.
Also, my paper metagame has a Uril deck running loose, so I was wondering if you had any advice for dealing with him? The only edicts I can think of in pauper are Diabolic and Innocent Blood and we don't get any unconditional sweepers (besides Child). I suppose I could run more counterspells, but there has to be a more elegant solution.
You have no idea how much I want to add uncommons to the deck, just for Eternal Witness and Fleshbag Marauder.
Congratulations again on such a sweet deck. This just might be exactly what I've been looking for.
Teneb, the Harvester: Let there be life!
Drafting Aggro in the Cube: A Primer for Beginners
Please don't take this too seriously.
-----------------------------------
Playing Magic is a dance with the players involved struggling for a position of advantage. Let's just jump right in: how do we objectively measure advantage in Magic? As Pat Chapin would say, having more and better options is the point of Magic: it's how you win games.
All that may be true, but what does that even mean? What exactly is an "option" and how do you tell if one option is better than another? Amassing more "cards" than an opponent (Card Advantage) is one method of increasing your option advantage. But do tokens count as cards, and are all cards worth equal value? Similarly, being faster than your opponent (Tempo Advantage) can provide you with more options. But, without already knowing the outcome of match, how can you really tell who is ahead in tempo? Is the Azusa player with 15 lands and 5 life ahead, or the mono-red burn player with 4 lands and 40 life going to win the race?
Understanding Magic boils down to how we quantify these variables, but when our units of measure are as vauge as "cards" and "tempi," Magic theory isn't very practical. In 2010, AJ Sacher and Mike Flores independently arrived at the Next Level(tm) of Magic theory. Rather than measure things in cards or whatever, they proposed a new theory: whoever has effectively gained the most "mana's worth" of effects is heavily favored to win the game. From here, you can assign values to certain effects (drawing a card is worth U, destroying a creature is worth BR, etc.) and simply add the effects together. However, even this theory is full of corner cases and exceptions that have yet to be addressed.
Pondering this situation has led me to an interesting hypothesis. The card unit and the mana unit are too vague to be consistently useful. Instead, I propose that the best unit of measure is the American $0.01 penny. Whoever accumulates the greatest "money advantage" over the course of the game is heavily favored to win. I mean, if you think about it, it's no secret that the most competitive decks cost loads of cash to build, and if the manabase supports it, you can often build a very good deck by simply throwing all of the money rares into a deck together (a la Mythic in Standard, Team America in Legacy, and most Vintage decks period). You can accumulate money advantage by using your own expensive cards or answering opponents' cards with cheaper solutions.
Examples: when you cast a Jace the Mindsculptor, you are +$90. When you cast Lotus Cobra, you are +$15, and when someone destroys it, you are -$15 again; unless the Cobra generates virtual money advantage before it is answered, you are back to square one. It makes sense, and it even feels right. When your opponent goes through a playset of Lion's Eye Diamonds in an attempt to kill you with Tendrils of Agony but you stop it with a lonely $0.75 Trickbind, the joke's on them, right? That's because, at that moment, you have generated so much money advantage that it feels like you are $200 richer than you really are.
Remember this the next time you decide to sink a fortune on Dark Confidant -- that $15 dude will generate some significant money advantage when you cast it, but you could generate the same advantage by caring a little less about your mana curve and a little more about your money curve. Time is money, less money is less time, and if a cheap card takes less time than an expensive card, then Sign in Blood is actually lot faster than Bob.
Pauper is the future of Magic. Play to win or don't play at all.
-----------------------------------
I did lose a game the other day, but I won three more in the meantime. Once, I managed to trump Endless Swarm (epic spells are REALLY hard to deal with) by thinning my deck of all the basic lands with Sakura-Tribe Elder and setting up a 22-mana loop with Child, Izzet Chronarch, Disturbed Burial, and Terminate. I'm not trying to blow things out of proportion: this deck is far from unbeatable and has severe weaknesses, but until people play more graveyard hate or bust out some faster decks, Child will just keep crushing dreams!
Ah, the pirate as a general! Classy. I'm leaning on Child's sweeper ability to shore up some weaknesses, so your deck seems even more challenging to pilot. Be sure to keep us updated on how it works out!
Oubliette is amazing, btw. I never realized that card is common.
Aw, thanks. It sounds like we struck gold here! I'm really enjoying this deck and I hope you do too.
You present a good case for Armillary Sphere and Farhaven Elf. I'm considering taking out Horizon Spellbomb, Rampant Growth, and Civic Wayfinder in favor of those two and Sylvan Ranger.
Uril is a big problem, to be sure. Countermagic and Edicts are the most obvious solutions, but don't forget mass enchantment removal; Reverent Silence, Patrician's Scorn, Allay, Aura Fracture, etc. If you can counter or RFG Rancor, cards like these are absolute beatings to most Uril players -- Uril himself doesn't have trample, and we can chump all day long until we can pop Child a few times and make Uril uncastable.
However, if Uril is just focusing on you from the start, I don't really know how you can reliably stop it without changing the deck up a ton. We have a weak early game and a powerful mid- to late-game and are forced to play poltics a lot, like you said.
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This theory is awesome! It sounds so true too. Actually, come to think of it, mono red decks have been operating on this theory for years. Unfortunately, my playgroup uses heavy proxies so even if I crush them with a pauper deck I'm still down on money.
It never even occurred to me that there might be mass enchantment destruction in the common slot. Patrician's Scorn went right in, and I think Ray of Revelation will be the next one if I need more enchantment hate. Also, mass enchantment sweepers went in the rest of my decks too. Thanks for the heads-up on this one.
I've ran a couple games with Far Wanderings in place of Rampant Growth and that card is quite strong. Recurring it mid-game for +3 lands a shot seems to speed the deck up quite a bit, allowing more recursion per turn. Plus, it's tutorable for by all the 3-cmc transmuters.
What about Executioner's Capsule in place of either Aether Spellbomb or Journey to Nowhere? It'd give Trinket Mage and Sanctum Gargoyle a little more utility.
EDIT:
Apparently, the deck is strong enough to get me called a douchebag :rolleyes:. I'm playing this against Arcanis and Hazezon Tamar and the whole game I'm pounding on the Arcanis player because I figure recurring Child pretty much solves the Hazezon problem single-handedly. On turn 18, I Fireball the Arcanis player for exactly his life total (12) and despite the fact he has like 8 blue open and 7 cards in hand, he can't answer it and calls me a douche for burning him out. I tried to explain to him I was just trying to get it down to 1v1 vs a token deck but he apparently didn't understand the concept of threat assessment and thought I was just hating on him for no reason.
Also, Darksteel Plate is a PITA to deal with. I'm thinking of adding a Dust to Dust just to answer this card.
Teneb, the Harvester: Let there be life!
Drafting Aggro in the Cube: A Primer for Beginners
Maybe some creatures like Carrion Feeder or some Fling effects. Primal Growth and Far Wanderings are some of them that you should take a good look at.
Far Wanderings could be really good, since this deck ramps and fixes in Stage 1, kills stuff in Stage 2, and only actually starts to dominate in Stage 3. Far Wanderings helps us get to Buyback mana quickly! I'm a little leery of filling up the deck with too much 3cc stuff because it can get clunky with countermagic and such, so we'll just have to be careful.
I actually just cut Executioner's Capsule in favor of Rend Flesh, which essentially costs the same mana but is more versatile and lets us pop Child of Alara. Capsule was okay, but I was never really thrilled when I played it. On the other hand, Aether Spellbomb has been a great rattlesnake for me and bought tons of time versus the likes of Skithirix and Rafiq, and Journey to Nowhere does really funny things with Capsize.
I never noticed it, but Darksteel Plate is a NIGHTMARE for this deck! Ugh, I hope no one in my group picks it up, or I'll have to make adjustments as well. And LOL at the MUC player calling the pauper player a douchebag. Although, when I was playing this deck Friday and started hearing the other players sigh because they were running out of cards in hand and stuff to do, I literally thought, "Alright, they're right where I want them, now I can start winning this!" If wanting to lock them out makes me a DB, then I guess I'll take the hit.
Expedition Map has been tested and found wanting. Wayfarer's Bauble and Horizon Spellbomb fix mana just as well and have benefits, and although Map lets you Trinket Mage for Bojuka Bog, you can also simply Trinket Mage for Nihil Spellbomb. There just aren't enough utility lands at common.
I don't want to run sac outlets that Child also destroys. However, Primal Growth is pretty good. I think Rampant Growth and is going to come out, and possibly Horizon Spellbomb and Civic Wayfinder. Maybe even Opaline Bracers. I'll update the OP tonight.
Draft my Mono-Blue Cube!
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Well, how about Worthy Cause? I think it's common.
EDIT: I just checked and it's Uncommon.:-/
EDIT: Sad face nath'd.
(Yes I left the window open for 30 minutes)
Draft my Mono-Blue Cube!
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Wanted to say props for the deck, again, and that decks like this need far more attention in the word of EDH. Not every deck needs to be full of random cards now worth $40 (oh, when Time Spiral was a dollar bin rare)...EDH was a great way to make decks with super good older cards no one else really cared about (read dollar bin rares) so you'd often make killings on trades from standard/extended players when many of them dump their collections to gear up for a new season. Unfortunately, that's changing, but it's important to notice that it's still very possible to build $50 decks like this puppy!
Also, d0su totally politic-ed away a Reito Lantern - beyond super huge for the crusher of hope.
I'll also admit I sorta screwed the pooch for the guy playing my Momir Vig Snakes Tribal since he was all set to go with Seshiro the Anointed and Steely Resolve before resolving endless swarm...but I found answers to both....the sheer number of cards in hand, along with 3/3 snakes instead of 1/1 snakes, would have ended things rather quickly for everyone.
Hope you bring this one by again, people are very interested in seeing it in action again.
Re: Oubliette - yeah, stupid good. Definitely needs a spot in this.
Trade/Sell me your Demonic Attorney!
I'm am easily up to 10 cards I thought would be amazing for this deck that turned out not to be commons.:-/ Maybe Ashnod's Altar for a little combo potential? You'll have to play the ugly Chronicles one though.
any updates on this?
Thanks for spiderboy4 of High~Light_Studios for the kick ass avatar.
Thanks for DarkNightCavalier of HotPS for the exceptional signature.
I'm also thinking that you could run the Saga cycling lands (Slippery Karst and friends), and then stuff like Tilling Treefolk and Cartographer are both card advantage and/or fixing. It might at least be better than Horizon Spellbomb?
Aftershock also seems like really versatile removal that you won't mind recurring.
EDIT: Sylvok Replica? Gets itself in the graveyard, you've got multiple ways to recur it?
Well, since my last post, I've edited the OP to reflect my IRL changes:
- Executioner's Capsule
- Rampant Growth
- Civic Wayfinder
- Swamp
+ Rend Flesh
+ Far Wanderings
+ Farhaven Elf
+ Forest
Rend Flesh and Farhaven Elf have been solid, and Far Wanderings has been quite stellar. Foil copies are also relatively cheap to attain!
Vivisection is good here, but the problem is we have access to so many *good* cards that we have to forgo a lot of playables. My argument against Vivisection is this: I almost always have close to 7 cards in hand when playing this deck, and I'm never at a loss for stuff to do. The effect Vivisection provides is superb, but this slot would be better served with Primal Growth, for which I am trying to find room. Primal Growth costs less mana to cast, gives us more mana to work with, and actually gets a card out of our hand so we can get full value out of our other 2-for-1's and 3-for-1's.
However, I really like the idea of Urza cycling lands. Coming into play tapped isn't that big of a deal, and the cycling ability gives us something to do on turn 2 so our hand isn't awkward with a lot of 3-drops. I will at least add the B/U/G ones. Tilling Treefolk and maybe Cartographer might then become playable. However, I'll probably include what I can of the Urza cycle of cycling cyclers even if these guys don't make it.
Sylvok Replica was cut from the original build back in this post. We have a plethora of answers to artifacts/enchantments, and Replica was just sort of underwhelming. Aftershock is quite good, and the only reason it has been omitted is because double red can be difficult to obtain in a timely/efficient manner.
I don't get all the hate on Horizon Spellbomb, though. It can grab green mana (which most other fixers cannot do), it gets a card out of our hand early on, and is a much better topdeck in the late game than something like Armillary Sphere. I think many people don't give it a fair chance because it is immediately compared to Sol Ring and Krosan Tusker. It's not as good as these obviously, and I'll be the first to admit I never considered it until this deck, but it's actually been quite playable.
Here's what I propose, at least for the time being:
- Jungle Weaver
- Forest
- Island
- Swamp
+ Tilling Treefolk
+ Slippery Karst
+ Remote Isle
+ Polluted Mire
My list of possible cuts for Primal Growth:
Voidmage Apprentice (great effect, just so expensive)
Cadaver Imp (also good, but a little redundant and mana-intensive)
Opaline Bracers (gets destroyed irrevocably by Child, but it's better with fewer opponents and can close out games)
Tilling Treefolk (if it ends up being bad)
Thanks for all your continued interest in this, guys! I'm still enjoying continued success with the deck -- this deck takes FOREVER to actually kill someone, but gah it can be brutal. Ubershaum's playgroup seemed pretty awesome, so I might go sling some commons around over there again at some point in the near future.
Draft my Mono-Blue Cube!
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It seems to me like just drawing cards would be better most of the time, even though you can't guarantee that you'll hit exactly the color that you want. Thinking about it, though, Treefolk costs almost as much, finds two lands, but costs another 2-4 if you want to draw cards, so I guess I'm just being unfair, right?
Could you add an arbitrary infinite combo to this deck? It seems like there are a number of things you could do with Lifespark Spellbomb to just win the game, and you have enough "tutors" in transmute effects to find the various pieces. Something like...
Lifespark Spellbomb, Dawn's Reflection, Freed from the Real? Or Trace of Abundance/Fertile Ground if you can put it on a 5color land.
EDIT: Spore Burst might be good for making chump blockers, or swarming the board later in the game to speed up your clock.
However, we definitely need a way to speed things along, especially if Jungle Weaver and Opaline Bracers are on the chopping block. I'm going to go way back and mention the 1cc transmute card you suggested on page 1: Dizzy Spell. Gah that card is bad, but maybe if I view it purely as a tutor and ignore the -3/-0 effect it will be okay. It does everything Trinket Mage can do while letting us tutor or chain tutor into Fireball, which until this point we had to simply topdeck. Now in the late game, these can all turn into functional copies of Fireball:
Dizzy Spell
Merchant Scroll
Mystical Teachings
Muddle the Mixture
Dimir House Guard
Spore Burst is uncommon.
I'm testing Tilling Treefolk now. I'll let you know how it turns out.
EDIT: Farhaven Elf + Momentary Blink is delicious.
EDIT #2: It's Common Week on the mothership, and check out Maul Splicer from New Phyrexia. Looks pretty sweet. Momentary Blink got a new best friend!
Draft my Mono-Blue Cube!
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I played a two-and-a-half hour game on Cockatrice yesterday, and after blowing up the board 8 or so times, it was down to a 1-v-1 basis and I was finally starting to take over with 20+ mana, Capsize, and Disturbed Burial. My opponent and I ended up calling it a draw due to time constraints, but the fact he was losing after he played Praetor's Counsel really made him respect our favorite rarity symbol! (Far Wanderings continues to be amazing)
I hope that at least one of them makes the cut! I'm going to be so bummed if they end up being overpriced pieces of garbage lol.
Also, check this out:
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/sf/139
In light of this and the recent "budget EDH challenges" I see all over the internet, it would seem that budget EDH could be surging in popularity. Here's hoping!
Draft my Mono-Blue Cube!
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On to the deck.
Have you considered Arcane Denial? The few counterspells that are already in the deck have been pretty clutch, and having a 1U hard counter seems like a fantastic idea.
I ended up cutting Opaline Bracers because they just didn't stay in play long enough to matter and they're a pain to get back. It was pretty fun to slap them on Sanctum Gargoyle and laugh at all the 6/6 dragons, but ultimately they just didn't pull their weight. The easiest way to kill someone is with general damage anyway, which makes me think maybe Rancor might be worth a look. Probably not though.
Oddly enough, I've found myself not liking Rhystic Study in this deck. It generally draws far too much attention to me and that's the last thing I want while playing the deck.
As far as NPH goes, I didn't see a lot that impressed me. Maul Splicer looks pretty solid, but the other splicers are all extremely meh. Mycosynth Wellspring seems like an auto-include, probably over Prophetic Prism. Remember the Fallen might have applications, as getting back a creature and a spellbomb seems reasonable. Other than that though, I don't think anything else is even worth consideration.
Teneb, the Harvester: Let there be life!
Drafting Aggro in the Cube: A Primer for Beginners
It seems that in his article he is only allowing 100 percent pauper decks meaning that your General had to of been printed at common. I think that would be pretty awful for the format because when your general is just a 4/4 vanilla or french vanilla you are pretty much going to be playing pauper highlander.
Like smashing face? Like not worrying about pitiful tokens or life gain? Check out Stonebrow, Krosan Hero for all your face smashing needs
Awesome kill against Uril. I'm having similar results -- very long games (about 2.5 hours on average), very political/strategic play, and a more than acceptable win-loss ratio. This deck is definitely going to stick around for a while. I'm also pleased to see we've come to similar conclusions as far as card choices are concerned!
Fireball has sort of overshadowed Opaline Bracers, so I think it's time to take it out. Arcane Denial is one of my favorite cards, so it could me a fine replacement. I considered Rancor before, but IDK if it does enough.
Rhystic Study, however, has been great for me. Because Child blows it away, I usually only draw 3 or 4 cards off it, but that's spectacular as far as I'm concerned. I can understand it drawing unwanted attention, though -- one of the guys in my old playgroup freaking HATED Rhystic Study and by extension anyone who played it! Well, maybe not that last bit, but still... I'll keep playing it because I *heart* drawing cards.
The other Splicers really let me down. Maul Splicer and Mycosynth Wellspring might make the cut, though. Splicer is a decent finisher/rattlesnake, and Wellspring is solid CA and mana fixing. Wellspring vs. Prism is quite the competition; the cantrip makes me a little biased toward Prism for the same reason I like Horizon Spellbomb over Armillary Sphere, but then again Prism isn't really CA. Playtest time!
On Tilling Treefolk: this guy may be here to stay. Again, it's not amazing or anything, but the more I think about it, the more I like having a potential out to Armageddon. He usually cantrips, anyway. Once again, I find out that Carlos was on the money.
On Fireball: I'm replacing it with Rolling Thunder. Double red makes Thunder difficult to cast, but since we don't really want to cast it until quite late in the game anyway, it shouldn't be a problem. Thunder also has a CMC of 2, meaning it can be tutored for via Mystical Teachings, Muddle the Mixture, Merchant Scroll, and Dimir House Guard. We'll see how it goes, but I think it'll be great.
Yeah, I sent Adam Styborski an email about it and he responded saying that a lot of other people said the same thing, and that he planned to address the issue in a follow-up article. I'm looking forward to it.
After the 5-player FFA game we played yesterday, my friend said "I'm not going to play Magic if someone else is playing Child of Alara." (LOL!) I systematically Fireballed everyone else out of the game, then he made me promise not to do the same to him. So I dropped an Eldrazi and some other fatties, and he spent all his resources getting rid of those. Then I started to Capsize his lands and he scooped. Dreams crushed.
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