It's a control deck, trying to resolve 3~4 Archive Traps as early as possible (by Trapmaker's Snare, Snapcaster Mage, Mission Briefing).
There's also an Azorius version.
Looking for suggestions and evaluations. Thanks.
It's basically a mono-blue deck, with just a tiny splash to black for those creature based decks for Crypt incursion. Even this card works fine against Emrakul, the Aeons Torn.
Sanity Grinding in this deck, can be really powerful, almost like an Archive Trap if we are lucky and get cards with blue mana symbols.
I will run 4 Mission Briefing, just because we are going to play almost all of the cards in our graveyard to mill the opponent. And as I said before, for tron decks that runs emrakuls, even if you get rid of them exiling it, you will have to mill your opponent again since it will shuffle the graveyard to library.
Also, instead of Remand, Deprive would work better in our deck, since we can play lands and get crabs ability to trigger once more on the next turn, or if we didn't played a land yet. Also, with Sanity Grinding would help it with mana symbols.
For sideboard I was thinking on adding more creatures/removal.
Mill requires stringent mana efficiency in order to compete competitively or with most of the decks you’ll see at your fnm. Pushing more than 4 colorless lands will cause you to mulligan more and will make playing your mana efficiently that much harder. Mission Briefing is a great card in mill but it puts certain demands on your mana base. However, field of ruin and ghost quarter are a few of the ways to turn on Archice Trap. The answer here is the sweet spot number of how many colorless lands can you cram in without misteps. Some food for thought. Happy brewing!
Totally true. I remember when I was playing slivers with just 2 copies of Reflecting Pool, and sometimes I was drawing just one land and it was that one, or both of it.
In this case, running 4 Field of Ruins can help fix that by filtering your deck and turn on Archive Trap.
Also, I was talking with a friend, and I think we both reached that Logic Knot it's better, because of not returning lands to your hand, that can delay a precious cryptic. It can help with crab, but maybe it's not that worth it.
I’m personally not a fan of Deprive, especially in a Sanity Grinding deck. The goal in this type of deck is to include high cmc spells with the gameplan of casting them at alternate costs. However you should definitely still build your deck with the plan b of being able to hard cast these spells because in reality a lot of games will reach that point. Deprive sets you back on this gameplan and in my opinion this heavily outweighs making a land drop every turn for a hedron crab that may or may not be on the battlefield.
I agree that Logic Knot is better here, but it’s much much weaker without Mesmeric Orb stocking your yard.
Just from my own experience brewing around Sanity Grinding, I found card filtering to be very important. Being able to scry a few lands away before casting a Sanity Grinding made it hit that much harder. Card filtering will also help set up your miracle spells when they’re not functioning as mere Sanity Grinding ammo.
Alright, took this for a spin today although I've made some changes. Notably I've added 4 fetches to increase potency of Hedron Crab, swapped Logic Knots for Mana Leaks and swapped two Sanity Grinding's for two copies of Fraying Sanity. As far as sideboard goes, I took out Delvers and put in two copies of Surgical Extraction and Pithing Needles.
Round 1: Bushwacker Zoo with Pelt Collectors - Lost 0-2
Round 2: UR Arclight Phoenix - Won 2-1
Round 3: Dredge - Lost 0-2
Round 4: Dredge - Lost 0-2
Creeping Chill is really annoying and so are Phoenixes which means I'll be running Surgical Extractions in mainboard next week. With Cryptic Command costing 4 mana and Devastation Tide being 5, it feels like there is something missing till you get there. Relying on Miracle'd Tide is too iffy. Perhaps some copies of Echoing Truth?
There's also an Azorius version.
Looking for suggestions and evaluations. Thanks.
4 Thing in the Ice
3 Snapcaster Mage
2 Vendilion Clique
Land
14 Island
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
3 Ghost Quarter
4 Field of Ruin
Instant
4 Piracy Charm
4 Archive Trap
4 Trapmaker's Snare
3 Dismember
4 Visions of Beyond
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Psionic Blast
3 Remand
2 Cryptic Command
2 Mission Briefing
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Ratchet Bomb
1 Mindbreak Trap
2 Ravenous Trap
1 Negate
2 Hurkyl's Recall
3 Surgical Extraction
1 Dispel
1 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Disdainful Stroke
4 Thing in the Ice
3 Snapcaster Mage
Land
2 Plains
2 Glacial Fortress
4 Flooded Strand
3 Hallowed Fountain
1 Mystic Gate
4 Field of Ruin
1 Ghost Quarter
5 Island
Instant
4 Archive Trap
4 Trapmaker's Snare
4 Path to Exile
4 Visions of Beyond
1 Cyclonic Rift
3 Settle the Wreckage
2 Cryptic Command
3 Remand
2 Dismember
1 Spell Snare
2 Mission Briefing
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Mindbreak Trap
2 Ravenous Trap
1 Celestial Purge
1 Urgent Exorcism
2 Hurkyl's Recall
3 Surgical Extraction
1 Dispel
1 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Negate
2 Timely Reinforcements
The deck is, without sideboard for the moment:
3 Field of Ruin
3 Flooded Strand
3 Watery Grave
4 Polluted Delta
7 Island
2 Swamp
4 Hedron Crab
Other Spells (34)
4 Archive Trap
4 Crypt Incursion
4 Deprive
4 Devastation Tide
4 Mission Briefing
4 Sanity Grinding
4 Visions of Beyond
4 Cryptic Command
2 Trapmaker's Snare
It's basically a mono-blue deck, with just a tiny splash to black for those creature based decks for Crypt incursion. Even this card works fine against Emrakul, the Aeons Torn.
Sanity Grinding in this deck, can be really powerful, almost like an Archive Trap if we are lucky and get cards with blue mana symbols.
I will run 4 Mission Briefing, just because we are going to play almost all of the cards in our graveyard to mill the opponent. And as I said before, for tron decks that runs emrakuls, even if you get rid of them exiling it, you will have to mill your opponent again since it will shuffle the graveyard to library.
Also, instead of Remand, Deprive would work better in our deck, since we can play lands and get crabs ability to trigger once more on the next turn, or if we didn't played a land yet. Also, with Sanity Grinding would help it with mana symbols.
For sideboard I was thinking on adding more creatures/removal.
In this case, running 4 Field of Ruins can help fix that by filtering your deck and turn on Archive Trap.
Also, I was talking with a friend, and I think we both reached that Logic Knot it's better, because of not returning lands to your hand, that can delay a precious cryptic. It can help with crab, but maybe it's not that worth it.
I agree that Logic Knot is better here, but it’s much much weaker without Mesmeric Orb stocking your yard.
Just from my own experience brewing around Sanity Grinding, I found card filtering to be very important. Being able to scry a few lands away before casting a Sanity Grinding made it hit that much harder. Card filtering will also help set up your miracle spells when they’re not functioning as mere Sanity Grinding ammo.
4 Hedron Crab
Spells:
4 Archive Trap
4 Cryptic Command
4 Devastation Tide
3 Logic Knot
4 Mission Briefing
4 Sanity Grinding
4 Thought Scour
2 Trapmaker's Snare
4 Visions of Beyond
4 Field of Ruin
2 Ipnu Rivulet
14 Island
3 Shelldock Isle
4 Delver of Secrets
2 Dispel
1 Hurkyl's Recall
4 Jace's Phantasm
2 Negate
2 Ravenous Trap
WBG Elves WBG
Cheeri0s
EDH:
RG Omnath, Locus of Rage RG || GWUB Atraxa, Praetors' Voice GWUB
R Zo-Zu the Punisher R || WU Brago, King Eternal WU
UB Gisa and Geralf UB || BGW Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW
4 Hedron Crab
Spells
4 Archive Trap
4 Cryptic Command
4 Devastation Tide
3 Mana Leak
4 Mission Briefing
2 Sanity Grinding
4 Thought Scour
2 Trapmaker's Snare
4 Visions of Beyond
2 Fraying Sanity
Lands
4 Field of Ruin
4 Flooded Strand
2 Ipnu Rivulet
10 Island
3 Shelldock Isle
2 Dispel
1 Hurkyl's Recall
4 Jace's Phantasm
2 Negate
2 Pithing Needle
2 Ravenous Trap
2 Surgical Extraction
Round 1: Bushwacker Zoo with Pelt Collectors - Lost 0-2
Round 2: UR Arclight Phoenix - Won 2-1
Round 3: Dredge - Lost 0-2
Round 4: Dredge - Lost 0-2
Creeping Chill is really annoying and so are Phoenixes which means I'll be running Surgical Extractions in mainboard next week. With Cryptic Command costing 4 mana and Devastation Tide being 5, it feels like there is something missing till you get there. Relying on Miracle'd Tide is too iffy. Perhaps some copies of Echoing Truth?
WBG Elves WBG
Cheeri0s
EDH:
RG Omnath, Locus of Rage RG || GWUB Atraxa, Praetors' Voice GWUB
R Zo-Zu the Punisher R || WU Brago, King Eternal WU
UB Gisa and Geralf UB || BGW Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW