Maybe. There're some issues with this archetype that need to be solved but I'm not sure crashing footfalls is the answer.
I've recently played this list in an FNM to test some of the new cards from MH and was pretty pleased with the results and how it played out. One issue still remains, though, and that may or may not be solved by crashing footfalls. Anyway, this is my list:
The sideboard is slightly random as I had no time to really update it, but things I would never cut are the angers and sprays as you need early interaction against aggro and/or additional boardwipes that exile. I also only play 1 cascade bluffs because I only have 1.
Going into the FNM, my idea was that electrodominance is the weakest of the enablers in the majority of games and can be shaved to 3 MD with the 4th in the board for matchups where T2 end or instant speed end is needed. While I still stand by this decision, it doesn't mask the biggest issue this deck still has: not finding living end in time.
In the FNM, I went 2-1-1 (the draw was a win but was 1 turn short to finish it. We (mostly he :P) were rather slow and later he told me he actually scooped but I didn't realize.. lol). What did I lose to? Well, myself. In 2 games, despite even angering his board in G2, I lost to actual RG Innistrad draft pile because I just couldn't find living end or anything to stabilize the board. I beat (budget) infect, UW stoneforge control and (practically) Amulet Titan.
In all games I won, Force of Negation was insane. It stopped summoning pact and Karn against titan, 3feri against UW control and lethal pump against infect, as examples. This may be one of the best decks in the format for Force as you have so many blue cards to pitch and the cycling nature of the deck ensures you have spare cards to pitch and on top of that you can actually use it to protect your combo via electrodominance.
While force helps tremendously against annoying stuff like 3feri and chalice on 0, so does nimble obstructionist. This is a very flexible cycler that I think is just a requirement in this deck as it gives you main deck outs to stuff like relic, tormod's crypt and chalice by simply cycling to counter the ability. Cryptic is another safety valve to be able to bounce troublesome permanents, which means this deck is quite resilient.
The only hard matchups I had with U/x living as foretold so far were aggro and combo, and combo is more or less solved with electrodominance and force. Only aggro remains an issue because you just do nothing if you don't find living end. Maybe this is where crashing footfalls from the sideboard may help to increase the density of action spells, but it won't work against everything so I'm not sure that's the way to go. Alternatively you could simply stack the sideboard against various kinds of aggro (from burn to infect to zoo) as in my experience, the deck really doesn't need help against control (never lost this as far as I can tell) and is pretty decent against combo now.
Bottle Gnomes is cute but it's mainly good when you also have living end to get it back and when you have living end you can already win anyway, most likely. I even had Dragon's Claw at some point but if you don't actually play all that many red spells yourself it's not that exciting.
I recently started an account on this site, and will focus on Emeria control where I have the most expertise, but I think I know enough to contribute a little to this deck as well. I had a ton of experience with the following list during the 2018-2019 GP season:
This take on the deck is light as air and laser-focused. You will see what I mean if you play it, everything cantrips at instant speed other than the business spells, the lands, and the Chalice of the Void, which makes for some viciously fast starts and massive redundancy. The Tormod's Crypt in the sideboard combines with the maindeck one and the Academy Ruins for a soft-lock that could be found by Tolaria West against the Dredge decks that I tuned the list to beat. They are not recommended in the dark, but the sideboard Crypt can also be swapped for Engineered Explosives if that is appropriate to the metagame you expect.
Ruins should at this point become a Mystic Sanctuary, and the sideboard Crypt should probably go back to being a Blood Moon in the current format, but the biggest improvement that I would make with the new cards available would be to take out the Nimble Obstructionist and possibly both Dead // Gone to fit in either two or three Viashino Sandsprinter. The ability to add another threat that can cycle for a single red mana is a big upgrade that can enable a much more significant early-game Electrodominance, and it turns Living End into card advantage with the self-bounce (this last point still needs to be assessed as to whether it constitutes an advantage or not, but my instinct is that the extra option of a hardcast Flame Javelin is reasonable already).
Veil of Summer has made the countermagic aspect of the deck less reliable, but it is still quite competitive in an aggro/combo field. Just thought I would like to share. Feel free to ask about anything that seems interesting!
Huge shout out to the discussion here on the archetype, as it helped me forge this. Tale's End does what we all love from Nimble Obstructionist plus hitting meta-game cards hard, and sadly I think Remand's time is over. The other thing that I am still kind of feeling out is number of lands, as it would seem 16 is too low, but the new land cyclers are busted for living end. Bottle Gnomes is versus burn or domain zoo as it has been hard to find a better answer to low life situations. I really want to fit in 1 Inevitable Betrayal into the sideboard, but not sure what to shave or cut. Yes the fourth Tale's End is better than anything else - its that flexible, if I could find a way for it to be main again I would do it. I have also thought about trying to fit in Narset, Parter of Veils with Wheel of Fate/Day's Undoing as a sideboard strategy but no beans on that yet.
Win or Lose, you will love playing this deck!!! Take it for a spin!
I came across this list: http://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=22944&d=357107&f=MO
Is this the way to move forward?
I've recently played this list in an FNM to test some of the new cards from MH and was pretty pleased with the results and how it played out. One issue still remains, though, and that may or may not be solved by crashing footfalls. Anyway, this is my list:
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Flooded Strand
3 Spirebluff Canal
2 Steam Vents
3 Island
1 Mountain
1 Cascade Bluffs
2 Tolaria West
2 Fiery Islet
Creature 18
2 Nimble Obstructionist
4 Curator of Mysteries
4 Windcaller Aven
4 Desert Cerodon
4 Striped Riverwinder
1 Tormod's Crypt
4 Ancestral Vision
4 Living End
3 Electrodominance
4 As Foretold
4 Force of Negation
3 Cryptic Command
2 Magma Spray
2 Ingot Chewer
1 Fulminator Mage
1 Echoing Truth
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Bottle Gnomes
1 Dispel
1 Negate
1 Electrodominance
2 Anger of the Gods
1 Grafdigger's Cage
The sideboard is slightly random as I had no time to really update it, but things I would never cut are the angers and sprays as you need early interaction against aggro and/or additional boardwipes that exile. I also only play 1 cascade bluffs because I only have 1.
Going into the FNM, my idea was that electrodominance is the weakest of the enablers in the majority of games and can be shaved to 3 MD with the 4th in the board for matchups where T2 end or instant speed end is needed. While I still stand by this decision, it doesn't mask the biggest issue this deck still has: not finding living end in time.
In the FNM, I went 2-1-1 (the draw was a win but was 1 turn short to finish it. We (mostly he :P) were rather slow and later he told me he actually scooped but I didn't realize.. lol). What did I lose to? Well, myself. In 2 games, despite even angering his board in G2, I lost to actual RG Innistrad draft pile because I just couldn't find living end or anything to stabilize the board. I beat (budget) infect, UW stoneforge control and (practically) Amulet Titan.
In all games I won, Force of Negation was insane. It stopped summoning pact and Karn against titan, 3feri against UW control and lethal pump against infect, as examples. This may be one of the best decks in the format for Force as you have so many blue cards to pitch and the cycling nature of the deck ensures you have spare cards to pitch and on top of that you can actually use it to protect your combo via electrodominance.
While force helps tremendously against annoying stuff like 3feri and chalice on 0, so does nimble obstructionist. This is a very flexible cycler that I think is just a requirement in this deck as it gives you main deck outs to stuff like relic, tormod's crypt and chalice by simply cycling to counter the ability. Cryptic is another safety valve to be able to bounce troublesome permanents, which means this deck is quite resilient.
The only hard matchups I had with U/x living as foretold so far were aggro and combo, and combo is more or less solved with electrodominance and force. Only aggro remains an issue because you just do nothing if you don't find living end. Maybe this is where crashing footfalls from the sideboard may help to increase the density of action spells, but it won't work against everything so I'm not sure that's the way to go. Alternatively you could simply stack the sideboard against various kinds of aggro (from burn to infect to zoo) as in my experience, the deck really doesn't need help against control (never lost this as far as I can tell) and is pretty decent against combo now.
Bottle Gnomes is cute but it's mainly good when you also have living end to get it back and when you have living end you can already win anyway, most likely. I even had Dragon's Claw at some point but if you don't actually play all that many red spells yourself it's not that exciting.
I recently started an account on this site, and will focus on Emeria control where I have the most expertise, but I think I know enough to contribute a little to this deck as well. I had a ton of experience with the following list during the 2018-2019 GP season:
4 Desert Cerodon
1 Nimble Obstructionist
4 Striped Riverwinder
3 Ancestral Vision
3 Living End
3 Cryptic Command
2 Dead // Gone
4 Electrodominance
4 Remand
4 Chalice of the Void
1 Tormod's Crypt
3 As Foretold
1 Cascade Bluffs
3 Island
1 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Spirebluff Canal
3 Steam Vents
3 Tolaria West
3 Bottle Gnomes
4 Fulminator Mage
3 Rending Volley
2 Negate
2 Echoing Truth
1 Tormod's Crypt
This take on the deck is light as air and laser-focused. You will see what I mean if you play it, everything cantrips at instant speed other than the business spells, the lands, and the Chalice of the Void, which makes for some viciously fast starts and massive redundancy. The Tormod's Crypt in the sideboard combines with the maindeck one and the Academy Ruins for a soft-lock that could be found by Tolaria West against the Dredge decks that I tuned the list to beat. They are not recommended in the dark, but the sideboard Crypt can also be swapped for Engineered Explosives if that is appropriate to the metagame you expect.
Ruins should at this point become a Mystic Sanctuary, and the sideboard Crypt should probably go back to being a Blood Moon in the current format, but the biggest improvement that I would make with the new cards available would be to take out the Nimble Obstructionist and possibly both Dead // Gone to fit in either two or three Viashino Sandsprinter. The ability to add another threat that can cycle for a single red mana is a big upgrade that can enable a much more significant early-game Electrodominance, and it turns Living End into card advantage with the self-bounce (this last point still needs to be assessed as to whether it constitutes an advantage or not, but my instinct is that the extra option of a hardcast Flame Javelin is reasonable already).
Veil of Summer has made the countermagic aspect of the deck less reliable, but it is still quite competitive in an aggro/combo field. Just thought I would like to share. Feel free to ask about anything that seems interesting!
-Stéphane Gérard
PRESENTING: Crashing Electro-End
1 Bojuka Bog
2 Cascade Bluffs
3 Island
3 Steam Vents
1 Swamp
3 Tolaria West
2 Watery Grave
4 Living End
4 Crashing Footfalls
3 Izzet Charm
3 Tale's End
3 As Foretold
3 Halo Forager
4 Electrodominance
3 Cryptic Command
4 Troll of Khazad-dûm
4 Oliphaunt
3 Striped Riverwinder
Sideboard:
If I could afford it on MTGO I would also include:
Huge shout out to the discussion here on the archetype, as it helped me forge this. Tale's End does what we all love from Nimble Obstructionist plus hitting meta-game cards hard, and sadly I think Remand's time is over. The other thing that I am still kind of feeling out is number of lands, as it would seem 16 is too low, but the new land cyclers are busted for living end. Bottle Gnomes is versus burn or domain zoo as it has been hard to find a better answer to low life situations. I really want to fit in 1 Inevitable Betrayal into the sideboard, but not sure what to shave or cut. Yes the fourth Tale's End is better than anything else - its that flexible, if I could find a way for it to be main again I would do it. I have also thought about trying to fit in Narset, Parter of Veils with Wheel of Fate/Day's Undoing as a sideboard strategy but no beans on that yet.
Win or Lose, you will love playing this deck!!! Take it for a spin!