A hobby is by defenition something you're not any good at - otherwise it'd have been your work. Magic is my biggest hobby so I mustn't be very good at it.
Awesome, thanks.
Also, seems there are some new goodies; the spell lands from BFZ. Black one gives a Reclaim on Child, the other ones don't seem to be AS useful though White and Red both give a 1-turn buff (And Vigilance and First Strike, respectively). At common too, so a nice new trick for us paupers.
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My Commander decks:
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
Awesome, thanks.
Also, seems there are some new goodies; the spell lands from BFZ. Black one gives a Reclaim on Child, the other ones don't seem to be AS useful though White and Red both give a 1-turn buff (And Vigilance and First Strike, respectively). At common too, so a nice new trick for us paupers.
Yeah, those are pretty cool. Are we interested in any of these? It seems like they gain value if you are running the Ghostly Flicker engine.
Sandstone Bridge: White is the colour that has the least amount of cards in the deck, so that's a strike against it. However, granting Child Vigilance for a turn is a neat little trick, the +1/+1 is gravy. Not sure if I'd include it, but it's possible. Skyline Cascade: Only hits already tapped creatures, sadly, but this can frustrate opponents. Still, not sure if it's worth a slot here. Mortuary Mire: Oh yes, OH YES. Sure, without a draw effect you need to wait a turn, but it's still an extra piece of recursion, one that basically only costs 1 mana. Looming Spires: Cool card, but giving First Strike isn't as good as Vigilance, so I think this one is going to be out of it. Fertile Thicket: It does help your early game land fixing, and if you need more, bouncing and reusing or flickering it helps. Probably going in, after the Mire.
I'd say...
Mire & Thicket: Surefire in.
Bridge & Cascade: Worth testing, but I don't hold up my hopes.
Spires: Nah.
Also they do get better if you run the RavKaroo's as well...
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My Commander decks:
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
Sandstone Bridge: White is the colour that has the least amount of cards in the deck, so that's a strike against it. However, granting Child Vigilance for a turn is a neat little trick, the +1/+1 is gravy. Not sure if I'd include it, but it's possible. Skyline Cascade: Only hits already tapped creatures, sadly, but this can frustrate opponents. Still, not sure if it's worth a slot here. Mortuary Mire: Oh yes, OH YES. Sure, without a draw effect you need to wait a turn, but it's still an extra piece of recursion, one that basically only costs 1 mana. Looming Spires: Cool card, but giving First Strike isn't as good as Vigilance, so I think this one is going to be out of it. Fertile Thicket: It does help your early game land fixing, and if you need more, bouncing and reusing or flickering it helps. Probably going in, after the Mire.
I'd say...
Mire & Thicket: Surefire in.
Bridge & Cascade: Worth testing, but I don't hold up my hopes.
Spires: Nah.
Also they do get better if you run the RavKaroo's as well...
I am however trying to wrap my head around Fertile Thicket. I am not sure it actually helps with mana "fixing". With 16 basic lands in a 99-card deck (just used obZen's decklist from above), you have about a 40% chance of not finding any basics at all with your Thicket. You have about a 40% chance of finding exactly one land, and if you do, there is then a 20% chance that land is already on top. Together, these mean that about half the time, Fertile Thicket is a Tranquil Thicket without cycling. (which is fine, since about half the time Tranquil Thicket might as well not have cycling, either!)
You only get to "control" which color you draw if you find 2 or more basics, which happens less than 20% of the time. And a lot of times, you don't actually want to draw another land right now, anyway.
I think it warrants testing... but the numbers don't have me convinced that this is better on average than Slippery Karst.
Good to see you post again, obZen! Predatory Nightstalker is an interesting choice. How has that been working out for you?
My take on the new spell lands:
First off, new spell lands printed at common = awesome! Especially since I've transitioned to Cloud of Faeries combo over Krosan Restorer
I'm currently running Piranha Marsh and Teetering Peaks as land based win cons and Peaks also to give pseudo fire-breathing to CoA with flicker + wizard if I have nothing better to do with my mana. If I can pay 3 to pump +2/+0, would I pay 3 to pump +1/+1 and give vigilance or first strike? Probably not. So neither the white nor the red land is better than Teetering Peaks in the deck, but you can use it together with it, but then the tapped lands add up, so.
Skyline Cascade seems good in almost any PDH deck except this one. Blue will run Ghostly Flicker, so it's a solid effect for ETBT. But when you can blow up the world at instant speed, why would you care about this at all?
Fertile Thicket: My thoughts when seeing this card were pretty much exactly what d0su said. I'm not going to be running this.
Mortuary Mire: WHAT??? First we get a reusable sac outlet for 1 mana and now land based recursion in pauper? Happy happy happy! This goes in and makes my three any-land tutors, bounce lands and Ghostly Flicker that much stronger. Completely awesome!
Scour from Existence: A very cool card at COMMON (!) but isn't this better as a Teachings target in UB decks? Is the flexibility and colorlessness worth the 4 added mana compared to running cards like Unmake and Fate Forgotten? I guess if you're really pressed for space and need a catch-all. This card will make waves in pauper formats though. I might be undervaluing it.
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Thanks! Nightstalker is good just like Shriekmaw or Flametongue Kavu would be.
I think Scour is definitely a shoe-in for us since it's colorless and most of the pipeline lists have plenty of mana acceleration you can cast this reasonably early and it gives you an answer to indestrcutable permanents like gods or eldrazi.
Had another game with it today, against a Wydwen, the Biting Gale and Phenax, God of Deception - one hard control with Wydwen + Swords as finisher, the other self-mill into mass-reanimation. Won beautifully after Mind Extraction stripping Wydwen from her game, and counterspells killing Phenax's reanimation. Here's my list, sorted by CMC:
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
Remora's a bit of a meta call. There aren't a lot of heavy-creature-based decks in my meta, so I often either stall the board or get to draw a nice fist of cards from it. Rewind, in the meantime, is a bit of a personal favorite, and one of the reasons I am considering Karoos after all.
As for Pestilence over Crypt Rats; I'd run both but...I don't have a Crypt Rats and my LGS doesn't have one either, so I am waiting for BFZ to hit so I can order singles online and pick up a Rats on the side. Don't feel like paying $2 send costs just for a Rats.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
Remora is a shameless card to play mid game when you have enough mana down to keep developing but are starting to thin out your hand. The reason I don't run it is because it's timing sensitive. It's not a very good turn 3 draw spell, nor a very good turn 15 draw spell.
Rolling Thunder is awesome to be sure. I also underestimated it at first and have tried to replace it with more dedicated sweepers or dedicated finishers, but neither is as good as having the flexibility. It's that one last trick that people forget after devoting all resources to handle CoA. Why yes, of course I also have mana efficient direct damage at my disposal too!
Rewind, to me this is the best counterspell if you're running the Ghostly Flicker engine. It gets even better with ravnica duals and 20+ instants in the deck of course. But two wizards, flicker and this is a pretty tough lock to get out of and it only costs 4 mana per spell you want to counter (less with bounce lands) each turn.
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Welp, got to put in the BFZ cards. Of course I haven't seen all of them in the one game I got to play with the deck since yet, but Scour from Existence already helped me win; taking out a Soul of New Phyrexia in a Karametra deck (That had blown up to 17 mana turn 7) ensured the Karametra player was left without a way to protect it's precious forces and relied on topdecks, letting me close out the game. Awesome addition, that.
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My Commander decks:
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
Welp, got to put in the BFZ cards. Of course I haven't seen all of them in the one game I got to play with the deck since yet, but Scour from Existence already helped me win; taking out a Soul of New Phyrexia in a Karametra deck (That had blown up to 17 mana turn 7) ensured the Karametra player was left without a way to protect it's precious forces and relied on topdecks, letting me close out the game. Awesome addition, that.
I haven't had a chance to play with the new cards yet, but I preordered the foils this week (Rolling Thunder and Mortuary Mire) and am looking forward to taking them for a spin! Maybe I'll reconsider Scour From Existence.
Aside from Scour, I ended up putting in Mortuary Mire (No surprise there), Fertile Thicket (I think it's worth a shot) and Spell Shrivel (Exiling counterspells are welcome, not sure if it's good enough yet though but it's worth trying out). Scour's a bit of a weird card but there's a high percentage of gods around here, so it's nice to have around.
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My Commander decks:
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
As you can see I dropped the Krosan/Freed combo to try the Fairies/Wizard/Flicker combo. (still thinking going all-vanilla and relying on Capsize or other locks mid-to-late game and CoA beats to win, but will test the fairie combo first)
I'm thinking about maintaining Trinket Mage as a non-green ramp for now. But what do you think about Edge of Autumn to replace it if I leave the mage and artifact land drawback? Heck, even Traumatic Visions will do for a cheaper cmc but w/o leaving a dork (but replacing artifact lands for basic ones is worth it). And it's a counter. Urdjur's 2013 tech!
What do you think about Radiant Fountain to try to be a pseudo-wincon using the Fairie/Flicker combo?
I reckon Unmake is better than Scour from Existence because it can be tutored... Only playtesting both will answer this one. EDIT: Mystical Teachings can tutor Scour from Existence. Still...
Finally I'm not running all 2-cmc transmuters. Hope I don't miss Dimir Infiltrator, again, playtesting will answer. Same thing applies to Nihil Spellbomb, even weaker if I consider taking of Trinket Mage.
Cool list you got there, has a few things I didn't really consider myself.
I'm not too fond of Edge of Autumn. As great as the card is early game, I never want to lose lands as I tend to work towards Rolling Thunder if a game drags out, at which point you need all the land you can get. I'm personally too fond of Trinket Mage's utility (Especially with Spellbomb) to drop him, though I can see the arguments against him.
Radiant Fountain is a nice backup card for that wincon, though be wary of infinite combos and commander damage in turn, if you can't fire back. For that reason, I would run ALL the 2-mana transmuters; not only is Disturbed Burial the best card in the deck, being able to grab Rolling Thunder is a great bonus, though I see you use Fireball instead. Still, it's worth consideration to play like that; if you go infinite, both cards will win you the game, but Fireball is harder to tutor for as there's only 1 CMC1 transmuter.
Unmake's downside to me is the heavy colored mana cost, and it cannot hit certain permanents that you may want to exile like Darksteel Forge. I mean it's a good card, I'd just prefer Scour due to general flexibility and the ability to hit lands as well.
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My Commander decks:
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
I see your points regarding Scour from Existence and Rolling Thunder. I will test them.
Also I will put Dimir Infiltrator and Nihil Spellbomb back in the deck.
I prefer Trinket Mage because it fetches Expedition Map also. And it can be abused by Ghostly Flicker effects so it's reausable. The obvious tradeoff is that my mana base has artifacts so it's more fragile than basic lands but I pay the price for now.
I just saw Crop Rotation in urdjur's list so it must be great honestly I thought I was original lol
About Edge of Autumn: I guess it's the only way to cast Child of Alara on turn 3 (given quite a godhand, sure thing), but I agree it's a horrible card midgame. EDIT: Rampant Growth and Sakura-Tribe Elder does the job too. Meh. Azorius Chancery or Simic Growth Chamber (tough one)? Radiant Fountain (ETB untapped, it's not a wincon with combo but it's close) or Teetering Peaks (colored - but do I need more red? - and ETBT, I already have 13 lands which ETBT)? Testing both options.
Will change it all and refresh my signature. EDIT: done
There's another T3-Child option; Search for Tomorrow. It does require to be in your opening hand along with a green mana producer, but it's definitely viable. That said, I generally don't aim for T3 Child anyway, but then my local meta isn't all that fast anyway. And on a bit of a gamble, there's also Coiling Oracle, which is always a good card on it's own.
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My Commander decks:
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
There's another T3-Child option; Search for Tomorrow. It does require to be in your opening hand along with a green mana producer, but it's definitely viable. That said, I generally don't aim for T3 Child anyway, but then my local meta isn't all that fast anyway. And on a bit of a gamble, there's also Coiling Oracle, which is always a good card on it's own.
Pentad Prism can also make for a t3 Child which is a card I've made a part of my accel suite.
T3 CoA? The only possibility there should be Pentad Prism or the extremely unlikely:
T1 Search for Tomorrow
T2 Sakura Tribe-Elder
Just casting SfT turn 1 is a problem since most lists don't run that many t1 green sources (normally, t3 green sources like Transguild Promenade or panoramas are sufficient)
I don't like Pentad Prism because it tends to delay the "second coming" of CoA. I might try it some day though.
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My thoughts exactly urdjur. You beat me to it. It's there but it's a godhand:
T1, put land which ETBU (*) providing green, cast Search for Tomorrow, fetch basic w/ 2nd color
T2, put land which ETBU (*) providing the 3rd color, cast Sakura-Tribe Elder (or Rampant Growth or Edge of Autumn if you have it among the 99 - I wouldn't ), fetch basic w/ 4th color
T3, on upkeep fetch land from Search for Tomorrow, put land which ETBU (*) providing the 5rd color, cast Child of Alara.
(*) basic land, artifact land, or Command Tower.
So you must have these cards in your first 9/10 (on the play/on the draw). EDIT: it's virtually impossible (if I counted right, about 1 out of 21 million), never mind. But it's there, just in case.
Agreed about Pentad Prism, looks meh because it's not reusable. Mycosynth Wellspring looks better to fill this kind of spot. I used this but gave up for now.
About Crop Rotation, urdjur, it's there more to help the Faerie/Flicker combo and to pseudo-protect from spot LD, right? Anyway, I thought it was a good addition, good enough to go down to 39 lands.
When/if I test a vanilla version (without infinite combos), I want to test some cards with the room available. The first coming to my mind is Manamorphose. It thins the deck, helps to cast an early Counterspell, etc. What do you think about it? What about other options to optimize a vanilla version? I'm thinking about it.
If it was indestructible, I'd try it, but after the first CoA blow this will go as well, so I guess this makes it a so-so card at first sight. Let's hear the other folks tho
And it has destroyed every other commander deck(s) I've encountered. Nothing short of non-stop counter-magic can stop you and even then it's not guaranteed as you've baked in some answers. In a 3-man last night I destroyed the other two players and then really destroyed them when they both came after me the next game with Slivers and Animar. I think graveyard hate is what it takes to beat me because the recursion is off the charts. Thanks for the decklist and ideas; wasting every nonland permanent at will is just unfair.
Edit 11/19: Remaining undefeated; adding Azami with nonsense like Zur's Weirding, and all the new 2015 Commander decks as my victims. I'm going to add Dark Depths/Thespian Stage and then leave it as is. My Sliver opponent even went so far as to switch his commander to Sliver Hivelord when facing me but it makes no difference. This is truly an evil deck.
Modern: -UBG Lantern Control-GW or RG or R Tron - G Stompy - C KCI Combo-
EDH: -UG Ezuri-UGZegana-BRMogis-WUBRGRamos-WBREdgar-URLocust God-WUBRBreya-BMacar-WUBrago-WEvra-
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Also, seems there are some new goodies; the spell lands from BFZ. Black one gives a Reclaim on Child, the other ones don't seem to be AS useful though White and Red both give a 1-turn buff (And Vigilance and First Strike, respectively). At common too, so a nice new trick for us paupers.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
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Sandstone Bridge: White is the colour that has the least amount of cards in the deck, so that's a strike against it. However, granting Child Vigilance for a turn is a neat little trick, the +1/+1 is gravy. Not sure if I'd include it, but it's possible.
Skyline Cascade: Only hits already tapped creatures, sadly, but this can frustrate opponents. Still, not sure if it's worth a slot here.
Mortuary Mire: Oh yes, OH YES. Sure, without a draw effect you need to wait a turn, but it's still an extra piece of recursion, one that basically only costs 1 mana.
Looming Spires: Cool card, but giving First Strike isn't as good as Vigilance, so I think this one is going to be out of it.
Fertile Thicket: It does help your early game land fixing, and if you need more, bouncing and reusing or flickering it helps. Probably going in, after the Mire.
I'd say...
Mire & Thicket: Surefire in.
Bridge & Cascade: Worth testing, but I don't hold up my hopes.
Spires: Nah.
Also they do get better if you run the RavKaroo's as well...
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
I am however trying to wrap my head around Fertile Thicket. I am not sure it actually helps with mana "fixing". With 16 basic lands in a 99-card deck (just used obZen's decklist from above), you have about a 40% chance of not finding any basics at all with your Thicket. You have about a 40% chance of finding exactly one land, and if you do, there is then a 20% chance that land is already on top. Together, these mean that about half the time, Fertile Thicket is a Tranquil Thicket without cycling. (which is fine, since about half the time Tranquil Thicket might as well not have cycling, either!)
You only get to "control" which color you draw if you find 2 or more basics, which happens less than 20% of the time. And a lot of times, you don't actually want to draw another land right now, anyway.
I think it warrants testing... but the numbers don't have me convinced that this is better on average than Slippery Karst.
EDIT:
Scour from Existence?
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My take on the new spell lands:
First off, new spell lands printed at common = awesome! Especially since I've transitioned to Cloud of Faeries combo over Krosan Restorer
I'm currently running Piranha Marsh and Teetering Peaks as land based win cons and Peaks also to give pseudo fire-breathing to CoA with flicker + wizard if I have nothing better to do with my mana. If I can pay 3 to pump +2/+0, would I pay 3 to pump +1/+1 and give vigilance or first strike? Probably not. So neither the white nor the red land is better than Teetering Peaks in the deck, but you can use it together with it, but then the tapped lands add up, so.
Skyline Cascade seems good in almost any PDH deck except this one. Blue will run Ghostly Flicker, so it's a solid effect for ETBT. But when you can blow up the world at instant speed, why would you care about this at all?
Fertile Thicket: My thoughts when seeing this card were pretty much exactly what d0su said. I'm not going to be running this.
Mortuary Mire: WHAT??? First we get a reusable sac outlet for 1 mana and now land based recursion in pauper? Happy happy happy! This goes in and makes my three any-land tutors, bounce lands and Ghostly Flicker that much stronger. Completely awesome!
Scour from Existence: A very cool card at COMMON (!) but isn't this better as a Teachings target in UB decks? Is the flexibility and colorlessness worth the 4 added mana compared to running cards like Unmake and Fate Forgotten? I guess if you're really pressed for space and need a catch-all. This card will make waves in pauper formats though. I might be undervaluing it.
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I think Scour is definitely a shoe-in for us since it's colorless and most of the pipeline lists have plenty of mana acceleration you can cast this reasonably early and it gives you an answer to indestrcutable permanents like gods or eldrazi.
WU Rhystic Tron WU
WUBRG Snow-Go WUBRG
1 Sidisi's Faithful
2 Sakura-Tribe Elder
2 Coiling Oracle
2 Dimir Infiltrator
2 Cloud of Faeries
3 Farhaven Elf
3 Yavimaya Granger
3 Drift of Phantasms
3 Cadaver Imp
4 Vulturous Aven
4 Dimir House Guard
4 Archaeomancer
5 Scrivener
5 Mnemonic Wall
5 Izzet Chronarch
5 Mulldrifter
7 Krosan Tusker
Instants:
1 Power Sink
1 Pyroblast
1 Dizzy Spell
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Reclaim
2 Diabolic Edict
2 Grim Harvest
2 Arcane Denial
2 Altar's Reap
2 Mana Leak
2 Evolution Charm
2 Shred Memory
2 Counterspell
2 Terminate
2 Muddle the Mixture
3 Faerie Trickery
3 Capsize
3 Perplex
3 Ghostly Flicker
3 Reaping the Graves
4 Wrecking Ball
4 Rewind
4 Mystical Teachings
1 Faithless Looting
2 Disturbed Burial
2 Macabre Waltz
2 Rolling Thunder
3 Primal Growth
3 Compulsive Research
3 Search for Tomorrow
3 Kodama's Reach
3 Cultivate
3 Mind Extraction
4 Dutiful Return
4 Deep Analysis
4 Oblivion Strike
8 Treasure Cruise
Artifacts:
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
1 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Mycosynth Wellspring
2 Ichor Wellspring
2 Darksteel Pendant
3 Darksteel Ingot
Enchantments:
1 Mystic Remora
3 Rhystic Study
Land:
1 Azorius Chancery
1 Dimir Aquaduct
1 Rakdos Carnarium
1 Gruul Turf
1 Selesnya Sanctuary
1 Orzhov Basilica
1 Golgari Rot-Farm
1 Simic Growth Chamber
1 Izzet Boilerworks
1 Boros Garrison
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Transguild Promenade
1 Rupture Spire
1 Opal Palace
1 Command Tower
1 Plains
6 Island
5 Swamp
3 Mountain
5 Forest
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
Why Pestilence over Crypt Rats? Do you find it easier to lock people out?
Draft my Mono-Blue Cube!
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As for Pestilence over Crypt Rats; I'd run both but...I don't have a Crypt Rats and my LGS doesn't have one either, so I am waiting for BFZ to hit so I can order singles online and pick up a Rats on the side. Don't feel like paying $2 send costs just for a Rats.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
Rolling Thunder is awesome to be sure. I also underestimated it at first and have tried to replace it with more dedicated sweepers or dedicated finishers, but neither is as good as having the flexibility. It's that one last trick that people forget after devoting all resources to handle CoA. Why yes, of course I also have mana efficient direct damage at my disposal too!
Rewind, to me this is the best counterspell if you're running the Ghostly Flicker engine. It gets even better with ravnica duals and 20+ instants in the deck of course. But two wizards, flicker and this is a pretty tough lock to get out of and it only costs 4 mana per spell you want to counter (less with bounce lands) each turn.
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"At least for those who can play cards, their present incarnation is not quite wasted."
[Click here for the articles!]
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
Draft my Mono-Blue Cube!
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Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
My current list:
5 Child of Alara
Creatures (15)
1 Sidisi's Faithful
1 Spore Frog
2 Cloud of Faeries
2 Dimir Infiltrator
2 Qasali Pridemage
2 Sakura-Tribe Elder
2 Vedalken Aethermage
3 Cadaver Imp
3 Drift of Phantasms
3 Farhaven Elf
3 Trinket Mage
4 Archaeomancer
4 Dimir House Guard
5 Mnemonic Wall
5 Mulldrifter
Enchantments (1)
3 Reality Acid
Instants (24)
1 Brainstorm
1 Crop Rotation
1 Dizzy Spell
1 Reclaim
1 Red Elemental Blast
2 Arcane Denial
2 Counterspell
2 Devour Flesh
2 Evolution Charm
2 Grim Harvest
2 Muddle the Mixture
2 Perilous Research
2 Shred Memory
2 Terminate
3 Capsize
3 Faerie Trickery
3 Forbidden Alchemy
3 Ghostly Flicker
3 Harrow
3 Perplex
3 Soul Manipulation
4 Mystical Teachings
4 Rewind
7 Scour From Existence
1 Ponder
1 Preordain
2 Disturbed Burial
2 Merchant Scroll
2 Rolling Thunder
3 Cultivate
3 Far Wanderings
3 Kodama's Reach
3 Mind Extraction
3 Search For Tomorrow
4 Breath of Life
4 Deep Analysis
4 Foresee
4 Reap and Sow
8 Treasure Cruise
Artifacts (5)
1 Expedition Map
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
2 Darksteel Pendant
3 Commander's Sphere
Lands (39)
1 Command Tower
1 Rupture Spire
1 Transguild Promenade
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Bant Panorama
1 Esper Panorama
1 Grixis Panorama
1 Jund Panorama
1 Naya Panorama
1 Jungle Hollow
1 Thornwood Falls
1 Dismal Backwater
1 Halimar Depths
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Piranha Marsh
1 Mortuary Mire
1 Ancient Den
1 Great Furnace
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Tree of Tales
1 Vault of Whispers
1 Azorius Chancery
1 Dimir Aqueduct
1 Izzet Boilerworks
1 Radiant Fountain
6 Island
3 Forest
2 Swamp
1 Mountain
1 Plains
avg cmc = 2.69
As you can see I dropped the Krosan/Freed combo to try the Fairies/Wizard/Flicker combo. (still thinking going all-vanilla and relying on Capsize or other locks mid-to-late game and CoA beats to win, but will test the fairie combo first)
I'm thinking about maintaining Trinket Mage as a non-green ramp for now. But what do you think about Edge of Autumn to replace it if I leave the mage and artifact land drawback? Heck, even Traumatic Visions will do for a cheaper cmc but w/o leaving a dork (but replacing artifact lands for basic ones is worth it). And it's a counter. Urdjur's 2013 tech!
What do you think about Radiant Fountain to try to be a pseudo-wincon using the Fairie/Flicker combo?
I reckon Unmake is better than Scour from Existence because it can be tutored... Only playtesting both will answer this one. EDIT: Mystical Teachings can tutor Scour from Existence. Still...
Finally I'm not running all 2-cmc transmuters. Hope I don't miss Dimir Infiltrator, again, playtesting will answer. Same thing applies to Nihil Spellbomb, even weaker if I consider taking of Trinket Mage.
EDIT: Crop Rotation?
Waiting for your feedback. My current deck is in my sig.
Cheers
Other edits most due to typos.
Commander: Child of Alara BURGW, Adeliz, the Cinder Wind UR
Tiny Leaders: Gwafa, Hazid Profiteer UW
Regular Pauper: Stompy G, Mono-G Tron G, Infect G
I'm not too fond of Edge of Autumn. As great as the card is early game, I never want to lose lands as I tend to work towards Rolling Thunder if a game drags out, at which point you need all the land you can get. I'm personally too fond of Trinket Mage's utility (Especially with Spellbomb) to drop him, though I can see the arguments against him.
Radiant Fountain is a nice backup card for that wincon, though be wary of infinite combos and commander damage in turn, if you can't fire back. For that reason, I would run ALL the 2-mana transmuters; not only is Disturbed Burial the best card in the deck, being able to grab Rolling Thunder is a great bonus, though I see you use Fireball instead. Still, it's worth consideration to play like that; if you go infinite, both cards will win you the game, but Fireball is harder to tutor for as there's only 1 CMC1 transmuter.
Unmake's downside to me is the heavy colored mana cost, and it cannot hit certain permanents that you may want to exile like Darksteel Forge. I mean it's a good card, I'd just prefer Scour due to general flexibility and the ability to hit lands as well.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
Also I will put Dimir Infiltrator and Nihil Spellbomb back in the deck.
I prefer Trinket Mage because it fetches Expedition Map also. And it can be abused by Ghostly Flicker effects so it's reausable. The obvious tradeoff is that my mana base has artifacts so it's more fragile than basic lands but I pay the price for now.
I just saw Crop Rotation in urdjur's list so it must be great honestly I thought I was original lol
About Edge of Autumn: I guess it's the only way to cast Child of Alara on turn 3 (given quite a godhand, sure thing), but I agree it's a horrible card midgame. EDIT: Rampant Growth and Sakura-Tribe Elder does the job too. Meh.
Azorius Chancery or Simic Growth Chamber (tough one)? Radiant Fountain (ETB untapped, it's not a wincon with combo but it's close) or Teetering Peaks (colored - but do I need more red? - and ETBT, I already have 13 lands which ETBT)? Testing both options.
Will change it all and refresh my signature. EDIT: done
Commander: Child of Alara BURGW, Adeliz, the Cinder Wind UR
Tiny Leaders: Gwafa, Hazid Profiteer UW
Regular Pauper: Stompy G, Mono-G Tron G, Infect G
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
Pentad Prism can also make for a t3 Child which is a card I've made a part of my accel suite.
WU Rhystic Tron WU
WUBRG Snow-Go WUBRG
T1 Search for Tomorrow
T2 Sakura Tribe-Elder
Just casting SfT turn 1 is a problem since most lists don't run that many t1 green sources (normally, t3 green sources like Transguild Promenade or panoramas are sufficient)
I don't like Pentad Prism because it tends to delay the "second coming" of CoA. I might try it some day though.
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T1, put land which ETBU (*) providing green, cast Search for Tomorrow, fetch basic w/ 2nd color
T2, put land which ETBU (*) providing the 3rd color, cast Sakura-Tribe Elder (or Rampant Growth or Edge of Autumn if you have it among the 99 - I wouldn't ), fetch basic w/ 4th color
T3, on upkeep fetch land from Search for Tomorrow, put land which ETBU (*) providing the 5rd color, cast Child of Alara.
(*) basic land, artifact land, or Command Tower.
So you must have these cards in your first 9/10 (on the play/on the draw). EDIT: it's virtually impossible (if I counted right, about 1 out of 21 million), never mind. But it's there, just in case.
Agreed about Pentad Prism, looks meh because it's not reusable. Mycosynth Wellspring looks better to fill this kind of spot. I used this but gave up for now.
About Crop Rotation, urdjur, it's there more to help the Faerie/Flicker combo and to pseudo-protect from spot LD, right? Anyway, I thought it was a good addition, good enough to go down to 39 lands.
When/if I test a vanilla version (without infinite combos), I want to test some cards with the room available. The first coming to my mind is Manamorphose. It thins the deck, helps to cast an early Counterspell, etc. What do you think about it? What about other options to optimize a vanilla version? I'm thinking about it.
Cheers!
Commander: Child of Alara BURGW, Adeliz, the Cinder Wind UR
Tiny Leaders: Gwafa, Hazid Profiteer UW
Regular Pauper: Stompy G, Mono-G Tron G, Infect G
Can we use this here? I would play Reliquary Tower in a heartbeat, but is this card good enough?
Draft my Mono-Blue Cube!
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If it was indestructible, I'd try it, but after the first CoA blow this will go as well, so I guess this makes it a so-so card at first sight. Let's hear the other folks tho
cheers
Commander: Child of Alara BURGW, Adeliz, the Cinder Wind UR
Tiny Leaders: Gwafa, Hazid Profiteer UW
Regular Pauper: Stompy G, Mono-G Tron G, Infect G
And it has destroyed every other commander deck(s) I've encountered. Nothing short of non-stop counter-magic can stop you and even then it's not guaranteed as you've baked in some answers. In a 3-man last night I destroyed the other two players and then really destroyed them when they both came after me the next game with Slivers and Animar. I think graveyard hate is what it takes to beat me because the recursion is off the charts. Thanks for the decklist and ideas; wasting every nonland permanent at will is just unfair.
Edit 11/19: Remaining undefeated; adding Azami with nonsense like Zur's Weirding, and all the new 2015 Commander decks as my victims. I'm going to add Dark Depths/Thespian Stage and then leave it as is. My Sliver opponent even went so far as to switch his commander to Sliver Hivelord when facing me but it makes no difference. This is truly an evil deck.
EDH: -UG Ezuri-UGZegana-BRMogis-WUBRGRamos-WBREdgar-URLocust God-WUBRBreya-BMacar-WUBrago-WEvra-