Finn, thanks for your comment. I played in a tournament today and time was not an issue for me, thankfully. Most players, once they saw how it worked, were okay with letting me "speed" play through the combo anyways.
As far as that goes, I went 2-2 before having to drop out because my buddy who rode with me had to be somewhere. Had a good chance of placing fourth out of twelve, actually. But yeah, I still think that's pretty fair, especially since I'm missing half the cards I actually want in my list and had throw some other stuff in in place of it. The decks I played against were Suicide Black, some sort of white weenie deck I think, Zoo and a weird artifact combo deck that I first thought was Affinity.
Nobody had ever seen anything like The Four Horsmen though, so that was a lot of fun. They didn't know how to play against it, what to sideboard in or when to crack grave hate and stuff. Everyone was very interested in the deck, that's for sure.
I have a question, though. I've been looking at it and thinking about it and it seems like our opponents are able to crack Swords on our Narcomoeba before we can get off Cabal Therapy because Cabal is a sorcery, not an instant. Because it's a sorcery it seems like the Narco coming into play is going to have to resolve and priority would be passed before you could cast Cabal Therapy at sorcery speed. Am I mistaken?
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Force of Will is kind of like duct tape. Stick it in a deck and it will fix all your problems.
What would a game of Magic between Harry Potter and Voldemort look like?
I have a question, though. I've been looking at it and thinking about it and it seems like our opponents are able to crack Swords on our Narcomoeba before we can get off Cabal Therapy because Cabal is a sorcery, not an instant. Because it's a sorcery it seems like the Narco coming into play is going to have to resolve and priority would be passed before you could cast Cabal Therapy at sorcery speed. Am I mistaken?
Depends on what the stack looks like. If there are other things on the stack, you can pass on the Narco trigger, since it is optional, if you fear a Swords. The timing is such that once you resolve the trigger and Narcomoeba comes into play, assuming it's your turn, you would get priority. Assuming the stack is clear, you have priority and can freely flashback Cabal Therapy without fear of Swords. They cannot do anything until you pass priority, and by then, Narcomoeba will be sacrificed and Cabal Therapy will be on the stack. If there are other things on the stack, then things get a lot stickier.
OK. Hivemind is totally unplayable in Legacy. There is no way on this planet we are ever going to reliably get to 6 mana in this deck. And I will be dead before I use Academy Rector to get a card that does not insta-win (because I can do that and therefor should only do that). You would do well to write off that card immediately. pact of Negation is a possibility, but there are plenty of things to counter that do not happen on your final turn.
I find this ironic in light of GP Providence.
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Asking people to remove quotes in their signatures is tyranny! If I can't say something just because someone's feelings are hurt then no one would ever be able to say anything! Political correctness is stupid.
Wow, I forgot about that conversation. Just the same, I have serious doubts about Hivemind. It's a 3-card combo with 20 spaces devoted to it for Heaven's sake.
In other news, I am not satisfied with the deck. I have been thinking a lot about reworking the everything but the engine. In particular, I am wanting to use Chalice of the Void. The only problem with that is the necessity of Cabal Therapy. To combat this problem, I figured that we could just add another Narcomoeba and let them Plow one. But then there is the additional important role of removing combo pieces from your hand. That one is really important. So I figured Lion's Eye Diamond could do the same, but that too has associated problems, and can not be counted on the way Therapy can. Here are some ideas.
Both are harder to play than the version we have now. Both have a less stable mana base. Both are a bit faster. Both are going to have new peculiarities to work out.
Yes, Phantasmagorian is the card I have been looking for. Excellent, Sleep Elemental. The three cards part may be a deal breaker (as my hand is often empty by that point), but that is certainly a decent option. Unfortunately, I have to shelve my testing with this deck for the moment. I have begun fooling with another deck specifically for Chalice of the Void - which I think is stupendous right now.
No worries, mate. If you have Narcomoeba triggers on the stack when Emrakul's trigger resolves, the Narcomoeba triggers are invalidated and removed from the stack because the Narcomoebas are no longer in your graveyard. So if you are milling and you get more than one before Cabal Therapy just keep going until you get to Emrakul with all the Narcomoeba triggers unresolved.
One thing to note, because I can see someone rules lawyering a game away from you, is that Narcomeba's abilities don't just "become invalidated and removed from the stack". They STILL exist on the stack, it just becomes physically impossible for you to choose the option of "may put narcomeba... battlefield."
So after Emrakul shuffles everything in, you may very well NEED to state "let narcomeba triggers resolve" because otherwise they are technically still there and would prevent you from auto-therapying.
Another reason to (not) worry is that narco is definitely a may. So you can hit 2 triggers prior to therapy, let the first one resolve and just choose to not let it enter the battlfield, let the second resolve, therapy immediately. Then just go to reshuffle/Emrakul.
Another thing: For the blue version/Phanta I would suggest putting in 1x Deep Analysis. That way if you have 1 crucial card in hand and only 1 card in hand you can flashback Deep to get up to 3 so you can discard to Phanta and win the game.
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Asking people to remove quotes in their signatures is tyranny! If I can't say something just because someone's feelings are hurt then no one would ever be able to say anything! Political correctness is stupid.
Chapin's newest article is entirely devoted to this deck.
He wanted to play the deck at the Invitational but didn't have enough time to test the deck so settled on UW control.
His list for reference:
Commented on the ability to dodge more hate than Breakfast is the biggest appeal, and the wincon costing more mana isn't an issue because its colorless and opens you to Sol lands.
I'm thinking about getting what I need to sleeve the deck up. I already have Breakfast sleeved up so switching to this to test will be very cheap. He gave shoutouts to Finn for the idea too
Can't see the article for a few months. I want to note that he does not have the extra Dread Return in his sb. I wonder if he figured out that the resilience to gy hate comes at the expense of including that after game 1.
I found Transmute Artifact. I needed artifacts for that, though. Artifact lands, Sensei's Divining Top, and Mox Opal came by themselves. With Top, TA and Vault I feel like I consistently get the puzzle pieces fast enough now. I also love how opponents don't know what to expect from Transmute Artifact until it's too late (if they don't know the deck, of course)
Transmute Artifact is a brilliant innovation! It should be at least a one-of in the deck in case you get two orbs or two monoliths. Nice thought.
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WoTC, thank you for finally announcing the Modern format, an eternal format where everyone can participate.
It's not that good. Think about it. With the amount of search in the deck, extra copies can easily be shuffled away. And there aren't any other artifacts in the deck. What will you sacrifice if you don't have extra copies of Orb or Monolith? Now, you have to rework the mana and search cards to switch some out with artifacts for something to sacrifice. Seat of the Synod costs zero. Divining Tops are 1. You are going to be paying about 4 mana and an artifact to tutor up the final piece. That is not terribad, but the deck runs on a Threshold mana base. And that is not enough artifacts yet, anyway. You could play Moxes and Monoliths, but now you are making other sacrifices. A lot has to fall into place for it to work. The deck really, really needs a good tutor. But I have never been satisfied with it.
Of course, this depends on how you build your list but I run a playset of Ancient Tombs in mine and have found Fabricate to be a decent tutor. I know it's been talked about in the past about being too slow but I think that really depends on how you build your mana base. I've had no problems with it. Just a thought!
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Force of Will is kind of like duct tape. Stick it in a deck and it will fix all your problems.
What would a game of Magic between Harry Potter and Voldemort look like?
That's sound advice. Intuition is definitely going to be the better card in most all cases. I don't own any personally, though, and have found Fabricates to be decent. So if anyone's on a budget or doesn't already have a playset of Intuitions, Fabricate is still a decent sub, I think.
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Force of Will is kind of like duct tape. Stick it in a deck and it will fix all your problems.
What would a game of Magic between Harry Potter and Voldemort look like?
BBB is EXTREMELY awkward in a deck with monolith's, sol lands, and very little black producing lands and most of all you don't have dark ritual. Unless you devoted all 15 slots to it i.e. 4 cabal ritual, 4 dark ritual, 4 DD, 1 shelldock, 1 pithing needle/stifle, 2 flex slots probably some form of bounce like echoing truth. I would MUCH rather have a show and tell transformational SB since you have one emrakul MD already and you just need 3 emmy's and 4 SnT's in the board to support the plan.
Yeah I saw that Chapin talked about this deck in his article and I was like WOW he just talked about this deck that's sweet.
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"Yawgmoth," Freyalise whispered as she set the bomb, "now you will pay for your treachery."
BBB is EXTREMELY awkward in a deck with monolith's, sol lands, and very little black producing lands and most of all you don't have dark ritual. Unless you devoted all 15 slots to it i.e. 4 cabal ritual, 4 dark ritual, 4 DD, 1 shelldock, 1 pithing needle/stifle, 2 flex slots probably some form of bounce like echoing truth. I would MUCH rather have a show and tell transformational SB since you have one emrakul MD already and you just need 3 emmy's and 4 SnT's in the board to support the plan.
Yeah I saw that Chapin talked about this deck in his article and I was like WOW he just talked about this deck that's sweet.
I guess that explains it. I play a slower, more controlling version (more discard+counterspells, better search, etc) that is strictly UB, and I have not had any trouble with the mana cost. I can say there is a big difference between casting Emrakul and putting him into play (while letting your opponents do whatever they want as well).
The devil is in the details there. It seems reasonable in conversation. But it is a real challenge to make it all work.
Opal and Transmute need ~18 artifacts that can come out on turn 1.
Brainstorm and two colors favor ~8 fetchlands minumum.
Ancient Tomb cuts into both those goals.
I would love a solution, but all the ones I have seen cut into the effectiveness of the individual cards.
so I sleeved up chapin's list the other day with a few minor changes to the sideboard. one thing I noticed is that I really wanted to have a few copies of echoing truth in the board I hadn't finished my complete board yet but the deck did well went 4-1 in an eight man with some pretty solid decks played against merfolk twice and was able to get the win in game three both times but it's a solid match up. Fun deck after opponent saw how combo worked they normally just enter the scoop phase. Extremely hard to disrupt and a solid combo. I do see the need for a second dreadge return I also felt the need to have a single bridge from below in the board in case I need to add some blockers with narcomebas to set up my combo. all in all the deck was quite impressive not sure how much I loved using the red mana didn't see myself actually wanting to add red blast even against merfolk. the one thing that really hurt was wastelands. I lost to a turn one wasteland on an underground kinda wished I had a stifle in it's place. ECHOING TRUTH the one card I would have boarded in will remove leylines and allow a straight win and when an opponent is playing phyrexian revoker will allow you to get the job done. just my thoughts some misdirections could even work pretty well.
it's essentially 1 fewer slot so you can fit in Phantasmagorian in case anything gets stuck in your hand, freeing up the Therapy to be used to make tokens and hit the opponent's cards (thereby ensuring that Dread Return resolves). Alternately, you could use the slot for another Cabal Therapy.
Edit 2: With this setup, a second Sharuum, the Hegemon in the sideboard will allow you to make infinite zombies without needing Blasting Station for that small measure of resilience to artifact hate.
Edit 3: This may seem weaker because they can remove Bridge from Below by killing one of their dudes (or sacrificing him) but you can't cast Therapy with an Emrakul trigger on the stack, so you can just shuffle the Bridge back in to protect it.
aj first I don't know where you are playing but I have to say I don't think I have ever seen a deck that used leyline of sanctity that did well. I am a hugh fan of the card but seriously. plus if you are playing after board it's more likely they would have a leyline of the void. With that said I refer back to the idea of siding in echoing truth this will eliminate a threat so you can go off and just win on that turn. with that said it would be much easier to just side in a painter's servant grindstone combo and less complicated. plus a bridge can be disrupted much easier than anything in the deck the only card I can really consider a threat is stifle and it only buys them a turn to find an answer.
aj first I don't know where you are playing but I have to say I don't think I have ever seen a deck that used leyline of sanctity that did well. I am a hugh fan of the card but seriously. plus if you are playing after board it's more likely they would have a leyline of the void. With that said I refer back to the idea of siding in echoing truth this will eliminate a threat so you can go off and just win on that turn. with that said it would be much easier to just side in a painter's servant grindstone combo and less complicated. plus a bridge can be disrupted much easier than anything in the deck the only card I can really consider a threat is stifle and it only buys them a turn to find an answer.
A few notes:
1. You definitely want a few Echoing Truths. I was able to beat Pithing Needles and Crypts in the same deck only because of them. Do not use something similar. Only use Echoing Truth. The deck can combo out right on through one Crypt, but two prevents you from going off.
2. Aj, I would not choose your alternate pieces including Phantasmagorian for a variety of reasons. The biggest is that you have to have three cards in hand to use it. Also, how do you plan to get the Narcos back in the graveyard once they churn up each time? (EDIT: OIC) Blasting Station has not entered tthe battlefield at this time. Also, 10=10.
I was using bridge from below in previous versions, but I don't see a reason to return to it. The function of the deck once the two pieces are deployed is very clean and difficult to disrupt. The areas of improvement should focus on
1. Speed
2. counterspell protection
Everything else is either going to be uncommon, like Extirpate, or easy to play around (Qasali Pridemage).
3. Leyline of Sanctity is not good. You still have unlimited damage to their creatures, three 1/1 flyers that can be sacrificed and recur at instant speed, and a 5/5 flyer.
4. I like the Show and Tell sb best. We already have an Emrakul, and the SB already needs another.
I have been playtesting this deck a bit, and I have found that a SB Ancient Grudge is very good, much better than Meltdown in a lot matchups. I am still running Meltdown as well for the people with mountains of Chalices, Needles, and Null Rods, but it is useful in less situations, and it is generally less reliable. My manabase currently looks like this:
4 Polluted Delta
3 Blue fetches
4 Underground Sea
1 Tropical Island
1 Volcanic Island
3 Ancient Tomb
1 Island
1 Swamp
Being able to get a basic Island and a basic Swamp in game 1's is very good; I don't really see how the 2nd basic Island is better than the Swamp here. I also really like 3 Ancient Tomb. I know there is some debate about this card, but it really helps speed up the combo and sometimes dodge Daze in the Merfolk matchup. This deck is a tad slow against Merfolk if they have moderate disruption.
I am running a singleton Blood Moon in the SB for Team America and BUGstill, as it is pretty instant-win against them (plus Team America sometimes runs Extirpate). Mental Misstep seems like a strictly SB card for this deck, especially in this metagame (only relevant game 1 targets being targeted discard?). What are people trying to Misstep in game 1?
I really like this deck, and I especially like how synergistic the Show and Tell package is with the combo. I top 8ed GP Providence with Painter, so I may be a bit biased in regards to the SB Blood Moon and 3 Ancient Tombs, but the list is working out well so far.
As far as that goes, I went 2-2 before having to drop out because my buddy who rode with me had to be somewhere. Had a good chance of placing fourth out of twelve, actually. But yeah, I still think that's pretty fair, especially since I'm missing half the cards I actually want in my list and had throw some other stuff in in place of it. The decks I played against were Suicide Black, some sort of white weenie deck I think, Zoo and a weird artifact combo deck that I first thought was Affinity.
Nobody had ever seen anything like The Four Horsmen though, so that was a lot of fun. They didn't know how to play against it, what to sideboard in or when to crack grave hate and stuff. Everyone was very interested in the deck, that's for sure.
I have a question, though. I've been looking at it and thinking about it and it seems like our opponents are able to crack Swords on our Narcomoeba before we can get off Cabal Therapy because Cabal is a sorcery, not an instant. Because it's a sorcery it seems like the Narco coming into play is going to have to resolve and priority would be passed before you could cast Cabal Therapy at sorcery speed. Am I mistaken?
BGSpanish InquisitionGB
GFood Chain ElvesG
WUAngry BirdsUW
BUThe Four Horsemen (RIP)UB
Depends on what the stack looks like. If there are other things on the stack, you can pass on the Narco trigger, since it is optional, if you fear a Swords. The timing is such that once you resolve the trigger and Narcomoeba comes into play, assuming it's your turn, you would get priority. Assuming the stack is clear, you have priority and can freely flashback Cabal Therapy without fear of Swords. They cannot do anything until you pass priority, and by then, Narcomoeba will be sacrificed and Cabal Therapy will be on the stack. If there are other things on the stack, then things get a lot stickier.
116.2e
116.3d
116.4
608.1
(Will edit and type these out in full when I can get access to the rules again.)
BGSpanish InquisitionGB
GFood Chain ElvesG
WUAngry BirdsUW
BUThe Four Horsemen (RIP)UB
I find this ironic in light of GP Providence.
In other news, I am not satisfied with the deck. I have been thinking a lot about reworking the everything but the engine. In particular, I am wanting to use Chalice of the Void. The only problem with that is the necessity of Cabal Therapy. To combat this problem, I figured that we could just add another Narcomoeba and let them Plow one. But then there is the additional important role of removing combo pieces from your hand. That one is really important. So I figured Lion's Eye Diamond could do the same, but that too has associated problems, and can not be counted on the way Therapy can. Here are some ideas.
4 Basalt Monolith
3 Narcomoeba
1 Dread Return
1 Sharuum the Hegemon
1 Emrakul the Aeons Torn
1 Blasting Station
3 Thoughtseize
4 Mental Misstep
4 Force of Will
3 Gitaxian Probe
4 Brainstorm
4 Lim-Dul's vault
3 Intuition
4 Underground Sea
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
1 Island
4 Basalt Monolith
4 Narcomoeba
1 Dread Return
1 Sharuum the Hegemon
1 Emrakul the Aeons Torn
1 Blasting Station
4 Force of Will
4 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Intuition
4 Infernal Tutor
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Vault of Whispers
4 Mox Opal
4 Underground Sea
4 Ancient Tomb
Both are harder to play than the version we have now. Both have a less stable mana base. Both are a bit faster. Both are going to have new peculiarities to work out.
To solve this problem you could use a singleton Phantasmagorian
Edit
Actually if you want to take the chalice of the void way, you could get rid of black. Something like:
4 Basalt Monolith
4 Narcomoeba
1 Dread Return
1 Sharuum the Hegemon
1 Emrakul the Aeons Torn
1 Blasting Station
4 Force of Will
3 Thirst for Knowledge
4 daze
4 fabricate
1 Phantasmagorian
4 Intuition
12 island
4 city of traitors
4 ancient tomb
One thing to note, because I can see someone rules lawyering a game away from you, is that Narcomeba's abilities don't just "become invalidated and removed from the stack". They STILL exist on the stack, it just becomes physically impossible for you to choose the option of "may put narcomeba... battlefield."
So after Emrakul shuffles everything in, you may very well NEED to state "let narcomeba triggers resolve" because otherwise they are technically still there and would prevent you from auto-therapying.
Another reason to (not) worry is that narco is definitely a may. So you can hit 2 triggers prior to therapy, let the first one resolve and just choose to not let it enter the battlfield, let the second resolve, therapy immediately. Then just go to reshuffle/Emrakul.
Another thing: For the blue version/Phanta I would suggest putting in 1x Deep Analysis. That way if you have 1 crucial card in hand and only 1 card in hand you can flashback Deep to get up to 3 so you can discard to Phanta and win the game.
He wanted to play the deck at the Invitational but didn't have enough time to test the deck so settled on UW control.
His list for reference:
4 Basalt Monolith
1 Blasting Station
4 Mesmeric Orb
Creatures
3 Narcomoeba
Instants
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Lim-Dul's Vault
2 Mental Misstep
Legendary Artifact Creatures
1 Sharuum the Hegemon
Legendary Creatures
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
Sorceries
3 Cabal Therapy
1 Dread Return
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Ponder
3 Thoughtseize
2 Island
Lands
2 Ancient Tomb
1 Flooded Strand
1 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Tundra
4 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
2 Mystic Remora
2 Mental Misstep
2 Red Elemental Blast
2 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Llawan, Cephalid Empress
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Crippling Fatigue
1 Meltdown
3 Show and Tell
Commented on the ability to dodge more hate than Breakfast is the biggest appeal, and the wincon costing more mana isn't an issue because its colorless and opens you to Sol lands.
I'm thinking about getting what I need to sleeve the deck up. I already have Breakfast sleeved up so switching to this to test will be very cheap. He gave shoutouts to Finn for the idea too
Can't see the article for a few months. I want to note that he does not have the extra Dread Return in his sb. I wonder if he figured out that the resilience to gy hate comes at the expense of including that after game 1.
Thanks for the link.
Transmute Artifact is a brilliant innovation! It should be at least a one-of in the deck in case you get two orbs or two monoliths. Nice thought.
BGSpanish InquisitionGB
GFood Chain ElvesG
WUAngry BirdsUW
BUThe Four Horsemen (RIP)UB
BGSpanish InquisitionGB
GFood Chain ElvesG
WUAngry BirdsUW
BUThe Four Horsemen (RIP)UB
3x Doomsday
1x Shelldock Isle
You already have the Emrakul maindeck, so all you need to do is bring in 4 cards to dodge your opponent's graveyard hate.
Yeah I saw that Chapin talked about this deck in his article and I was like WOW he just talked about this deck that's sweet.
Currently Playing:
Retired
I guess that explains it. I play a slower, more controlling version (more discard+counterspells, better search, etc) that is strictly UB, and I have not had any trouble with the mana cost. I can say there is a big difference between casting Emrakul and putting him into play (while letting your opponents do whatever they want as well).
Opal and Transmute need ~18 artifacts that can come out on turn 1.
Brainstorm and two colors favor ~8 fetchlands minumum.
Ancient Tomb cuts into both those goals.
I would love a solution, but all the ones I have seen cut into the effectiveness of the individual cards.
1 Dread Return
3 Cabal Therapy
1 Blasting Station
1 Sharuum, the Hegemon
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
I would recommend:
1 Bridge from Below
3 Cabal Therapy
1 Phantasmagorian
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Dread Return
1 Blasting Station
1 Sharuum, the Hegemon
it's essentially 1 fewer slot so you can fit in Phantasmagorian in case anything gets stuck in your hand, freeing up the Therapy to be used to make tokens and hit the opponent's cards (thereby ensuring that Dread Return resolves). Alternately, you could use the slot for another Cabal Therapy.
Edit: This also gives you infinite zombies, allowing you to get around Leyline of Sanctity and friends. You can target the Narcomoeba with Blasting Station, then sacrifice it to pay costs. Bridge from Below then triggers and gives you a zombie.
Edit 2: With this setup, a second Sharuum, the Hegemon in the sideboard will allow you to make infinite zombies without needing Blasting Station for that small measure of resilience to artifact hate.
Edit 3: This may seem weaker because they can remove Bridge from Below by killing one of their dudes (or sacrificing him) but you can't cast Therapy with an Emrakul trigger on the stack, so you can just shuffle the Bridge back in to protect it.
Check it out!
http://www.eternalcentral.com/resource-advantage-in-magic-part-1-one-shot-resources/
http://www.eternalcentral.com/resource-advantage-in-magic-part2-tempo/
I've also written a short primer on Manaless Dredge in Vintage:
http://www.eternalcentral.com/the-dredge-of-glory-an-introduction-to-manaless-dredge-in-vintage/
Explain how Grindstone helps you beat Leyline of Sanctity.
Check it out!
http://www.eternalcentral.com/resource-advantage-in-magic-part-1-one-shot-resources/
http://www.eternalcentral.com/resource-advantage-in-magic-part2-tempo/
I've also written a short primer on Manaless Dredge in Vintage:
http://www.eternalcentral.com/the-dredge-of-glory-an-introduction-to-manaless-dredge-in-vintage/
1. You definitely want a few Echoing Truths. I was able to beat Pithing Needles and Crypts in the same deck only because of them. Do not use something similar. Only use Echoing Truth. The deck can combo out right on through one Crypt, but two prevents you from going off.
2. Aj, I would not choose your alternate pieces including Phantasmagorian for a variety of reasons. The biggest is that you have to have three cards in hand to use it. Also, how do you plan to get the Narcos back in the graveyard once they churn up each time? (EDIT: OIC) Blasting Station has not entered tthe battlefield at this time. Also, 10=10.
I was using bridge from below in previous versions, but I don't see a reason to return to it. The function of the deck once the two pieces are deployed is very clean and difficult to disrupt. The areas of improvement should focus on
1. Speed
2. counterspell protection
Everything else is either going to be uncommon, like Extirpate, or easy to play around (Qasali Pridemage).
3. Leyline of Sanctity is not good. You still have unlimited damage to their creatures, three 1/1 flyers that can be sacrificed and recur at instant speed, and a 5/5 flyer.
4. I like the Show and Tell sb best. We already have an Emrakul, and the SB already needs another.
I have been playtesting this deck a bit, and I have found that a SB Ancient Grudge is very good, much better than Meltdown in a lot matchups. I am still running Meltdown as well for the people with mountains of Chalices, Needles, and Null Rods, but it is useful in less situations, and it is generally less reliable. My manabase currently looks like this:
4 Polluted Delta
3 Blue fetches
4 Underground Sea
1 Tropical Island
1 Volcanic Island
3 Ancient Tomb
1 Island
1 Swamp
Being able to get a basic Island and a basic Swamp in game 1's is very good; I don't really see how the 2nd basic Island is better than the Swamp here. I also really like 3 Ancient Tomb. I know there is some debate about this card, but it really helps speed up the combo and sometimes dodge Daze in the Merfolk matchup. This deck is a tad slow against Merfolk if they have moderate disruption.
I am running a singleton Blood Moon in the SB for Team America and BUGstill, as it is pretty instant-win against them (plus Team America sometimes runs Extirpate). Mental Misstep seems like a strictly SB card for this deck, especially in this metagame (only relevant game 1 targets being targeted discard?). What are people trying to Misstep in game 1?
I really like this deck, and I especially like how synergistic the Show and Tell package is with the combo. I top 8ed GP Providence with Painter, so I may be a bit biased in regards to the SB Blood Moon and 3 Ancient Tombs, but the list is working out well so far.