This is very similar to the current Blue Tempo decks listed here, but not the same.
I am not playing curious obsession, and I am trying to go longer.
I am not a fan of mulligans, and the extra 3 land is significant.
Five of the critical cards that are different use the extra land in very noticeable ways.
The mystic Archaeologists do spend 5 mana and draw 2 cards, sometimes.
The Entrancing Melody does take over creatures, and helps beat red.
Entrancing an Obsession-ed creature on turn 3 sounds good.
My Djinns are bigger.
I am not playing quite as much a glass cannon, but it is going to be less flashy.
Last night I went 3/1 in real life with something quite similar to the above. Dreamcaller Siren was base deck, and only really special once.
Not particularly impressed with the Surge Mare either.
My plan on dealing with Goblin Chainwhirler, Nicol Bolas and all those horrid creatures is to counterspell them with cheaper spells. Seems to work.
Got beat by Dire Fleet death touchers.
The war kites seemed good too. Really helps the ground pounders attack, especially if the exclusion mages force a pick up.
I am thinking about trying to fit more Horns***gle into the deck, maybe from the board, and a couple of Zephid's.
There is something cool about countering their chainwhirler, and then tappng the treasure on turn four to cast a 5/6
4x Warkite Marauder & 4x Exclusion Mage are not doing their jobs.
(Warkite and Exclusion do work against Lyra, which is very real.)
Sure, they are reasonable, and sometimes are the kill, but. . .
I am having trouble with creatures that come into play and do something. Like Chainwhirler, or Nicol Bolas, or Death/Firststrike Pirates
This deck is not really a sprint style deck.
Sometimes it can just flood out too.
Bouncing their curious obsession'ed creature does work, But Entrancing Melody on it is just better.
Entrancing a 3/3 FlameBoy on turn 4 is also great.
So, How to make Entrancing Melody, the namesake of the deck, into a better card?
Hmmmmm.
It needs more mana to be more effective.
Mystic Archi also wants more mana. Five mana is a lot, but it does lock out and win the game if left alone.
As far as long term plans go, it is good. On a 2/1 body for 2 mana, it is also quite fine.
Losing to Chainwhirler is a tad irritating though, and playing 11 creature with 1 defense is just a bit too many.
Merfolk Trickster, remove the unblockable from the 1 cost merfolk, Block and Kill - also works against Obsession.
Is 11 wizards going to be enough to power the Wizards retort?
Going the pirate NO! is also an option, but 8 pirates for the discount doesn't seem enough.
+4 Horns***gle
+2 Zahid, Djinn of the Lamp
+1 Entrancing Melody
+1 Anticipate
The sideboard is really just Spam at this point.
A Diamond mare could be main deck, I spoze.
The UX counter that removes the spell from the game is probably reasonable, but not great.
Matters for the (red 3 cost Damage or Cards?) recursion, and the Black 3/1 that returns to hand, but not much else.
The Horns***gles are kinda silly, but, intellectually they should work to power the Melody, pay for extra cards via the Archi's and in effect pay Two of Zahid's cost. Counter then cast Zahid seems pretty good. Staying alive long enough to just cast Zahid shouldn't be impossible. He does look like a field presence. An emergency use of the Siren Stormcaller when I am tapped out also seems like a good use of the Treasure.
4 sources of Treasure! (Artifacts) doesn't seem enough, but, the current artifacts just don't cut it.
But, Zahid really does though.
At the moment, everyone is casting creatures. No Combo, and not much counter-spells, outside of Essence Scatter, and maybe Wizard's/Pirates NO! .
Maybe this is getting a little top heavy.
Dunno.
Sure aint a sprint deck any more. I think I am now playing 12-16 spells the same as a standard Blue list.
Needs a last card in base deck. Probably some sort of Deck manipulation, I spoze. . .
Are all maybes.
Search is strong, but, doesn't feel right.
I think Anticipate seems best, Instant Speed seems important when playing 12 counters.
More Islands/Djinn/Horns***gle/counter/ . . . or even Opt seems OK.
Initial Tournament :
1/2/0 Overall at GGL
1/2 Green/Black Good Creatures 2/0 after in socials.
I kept a 1 lander, with an Opt, on the draw. I discarded 3 times, and almost came back. This was a disappointing way to start a tournament. Maybe it was my own stupid fault. Thats Magic. over the short night I got three 1-landers with an Opt. I kept one other one, and it recovered for the win.
Danube can fight. This is a tricky one to win since all their creatures are good, and I dont really have a solution to the big planeswalkers. If they drop a 6 cost walker, the only real solutions I got are a counter with the Wizards retort, or dodging the activation with a Siren Stormtamer. Having said that, I went for the win and got a Fat Djinn, and he got a Carnage Tyrant. 5/6 Flyer just wasn't going to dance against a 7/6 trample, Hexproof, can't be countered.Carnage Tyrant is a real hassle, And I do not currently have a solution that is going to work. Can't counter, can't tap, and Dino Dont Dance.
Having said that, I still beat him overall. He relies on the Ravenous Chupacabra, and I can counter those. I didn't see any doom whispers. First game got interesting when I wanted to do stuff in a phase he did not know existed. Beginning of combat step is a good time to cast a Trickster.
2/1 Red
Oh My these games were tight.
Two of them came down to him topdecking for the win. One he won, One he lost. He was playing the full compliment of shock, Lightings & Wiz Lightning. Pretty sure the Obsession version of Blue would have just lost, since he also plays the haste fanatic, and the Goblin Chainwhirler. Really don't know what to sideboard against him. Wrong counter at the rong time will just lose games. The Keld song was very silly indeed. He had all four Ghitu Lavarunners in the third game, and lost as I worked out he did not have the second burn spell. I attack with 2 Djinn, for 10, on turn 5. Entrance his 5th creature. Counter, Block, Survive, and kill in the air because he didn't topdeck a burn, and whack him for another 10 in the air.
Oh my.
1/2 Drain Black Vampires
1 lander, Mulligan, Flood. He duressed me on turn 1, and saw 4 land and 2xWizards retorts! Somehow, I won that long, long, game.
Game 2 was no 3rd land. Sigh. Discard spells do work against me if given the oppurtunity.
Mana Flood. Recovered, but can't deal with drain creatures already on table.
Results : Hmmmmm. It has become a very different deck. It aint aggro, and it sure aint control. The sideboard was terrible, and I am not really sure how to improve it.
The entrancing Melodies did work, but only on 1 & 2 cost creatures that had already done something. Only "come into play and do something" creatures seem to get played in this format. Taking a Flamekin off Red was critical, But he did just remove the counters since it had 3 already on it. Melody was the card taken by Duress on turn 1, so, there was that too. Really not sure about them.
Horns***gle worked. really did. And the treasure was generally good too as the Architects got to draw two cards with 4+1 mana a couple of times. The architects do win games if allowed to. There is no Tap symbol on their activation, so with 7 mana play and use is just fine as they get Murder-ed.
Zahid & Anticipate were sadly underwhelming.
Tempest Djinn is an absolute BEAST in this deck.
Good :
Essence scatter, Trickster, Mystic Archi, Siren,
OK :
Opt, Horns***gle
Eh:
Anticipate, Melody, Zahid
I think I might be better off going back to a faster version, with War-Kites.
Horns***gle's really help the Zahid & Melody. As a plan, I can see the whole thing being ACE! against a Lyra or Angels based deck, but, well. . . maybe not against sprint and comes into play creatures, and Carnage tyrants.
Zahid just wasn't special. He didn't get cast one game, came into play and didn't get to be a hero, and got put on the bottom when he was seen as the top card after a mulligan because I did not have a Horns***gle. That doesn't seem good enough. I need more grunt, and the War Kites just seem better, and cheaper. They have a real sprint quality to them.
I want to be able to counter ( while on the draw), nasty 3 cost creatures. RRR, GGG, UUU, 1WW, 1BB . You know the ones.
Essence scatter does the job, but could use some help. I think being able to stop recursion spells and planeswalkers might help too. Syncopate is looking like a playable.
2/1/0
2/1 BG Good stuff
win - Tight. Game goes long. Mystic Archi wins it.
loss - Tight, until a Carnage Tyrant appears and it is over as I look at my 3 counterspells.
win - Tight. Tempo him, just.
2/1 UR counter-burn
Loss 5 spell counter war, twice 13 islands, lots of Mystic Archi activation, more land
Win Flying death
Win Quick flying death
1/2 BG Good Stuff
Win Triple Tricksters, total.
Loss Tight, then Vivian Blowout
Loss Tight almost Melody Him to death, but he recovers. I flood early while he starves, and then Chupas his way back in and it becomes a blowout.
Against a different good Black green in socials 1/0 and then 2/2 after board.
The Mystic Archi's Shovelled out defenders for maybe 6 turns in a row. One turn he double activated. The turn before i just die, I swing with a single Tempest Djinn for 14 damage ! That game he opened with all four Steel Leaf Champs, and 2 Nullhide Ferrox's. All countered, except the last Steel Leaf, which I Entrancing Melody'd, and he then killed.
Melody is really good against little cheature they expect to get good value out of.
Melody Blows against come into play creatures, like Ravenous Chupacubra. The Black/Green explore guys are worth taking, and likely around long enough to take.
Mystic Architect works. Long games, he can swing it. The war kites really help apply pressure, and help get to the long game where Mystic is alive since War kite is a better 2 drop attacker. seriously under-rated, and cheap
Syncopate was a 4 of in base, and seemed OK-ish
Actually, this has to be the cheapest tournament deck out there.
I am playing 13 rares, TOTAL !
Mystic Architect and Entrancing Melody are dollar rares. I think the singleton Dreamcaller Siren in board is trash too.
Warkite Marauder is the most expensive rare !
The most expensive cards are Tempest Djinn & Siren Stormtamer, $2.3 & $4.5 each. . . . . Wow.
.
This deck costs maybe 50 bucks.
I would play more expensive cards, if they were better suited. (I am considering a single "Search for Azcanta", which would DOUBLE THE COST OF THE DECK !)
Really not sure how to approach dealing with a Carnage Tyrant.
Not sure if there is ANY way do deal with it in blue. Sleep? I mean, sure, that solves it for 1 turn. Speeding up by slowing them is sort of a solution, but I prefer to go faster by going faster.
The reason Entrancing Melody is better than an old style Control Magic is because there is no enchantment on it to remove.
The reason it is worse is because it doesn't just grab any creature for four mana. At 3 mana it is way better on a 1-Drop creature, but, WooHoo! really.
At 4 mana, Entrancing grabs a 2-Drop creature better than Control Magic.
At 5 mana, Entrancing grabs a 3 drop creature better than Persuasion.
But, When they cast a 4 drop creature, Entrancing Melody at 6 cost is Great!, but only if you have 6 mana.
And the creature is actually a 4 drop.
Ravenous Chupacabra is not a 4 drop creature, It is a kill spell, with a residual 2 Drop body.
Findkeeper is a regrowth
Almost all creatures that appear on the other side of the table do something the moment they appear, and are not meant to actually win the game by hitting people. Even the Explore creatures in Green & Black are about getting mana more than hitting people in the early game. grabbing a 1/2 or a 2/1 really blows.
Carnage Tyrant, Nullhide, and (UUBB spectre) all have hexproof.
Silver Leaf Champ & Goblin Warboss are both great targets, if you can survive to 5 mana.
Runaway Steam kin is an OK target, and enemy Tempest Djinns are a hoot.
Steal an Obsession'd creature and the game is gunna change
Doom whisperer is just too much, almost always. And Ghalta is just not happening. But would with control magic.
It is really similar to why Exclusion mage really aint as good as a Man-o-war. Man-o-war can bounce my creatures that you are interfering with, and your creatures used to be scarey on table, not as they arrived.
Planeswalkers did not exist back then, and they are the new big scarey creatures.
Hmmmm.
This deck does win rounds, and i was one game off a minor tournament.
but it is a struggle.
The cards that I want to play, just aint there.
At 3 cost and above, nothing else seems tournament viable. Djinn of 3 wishes looks SO weak compared to The Tempest Djinn.
There is no 4 cost 4/4 vannila, let alone with abilities.
hmmmm.
Maybe these obsession types have a point.
The problems are that there is no Big Blue that seems to be worth casting, because everyone can just kill it too easily, and because everyone else has much better creatures.
Zahid is the obvious hugh point in larger blue creatures.
Lyra is just better than Zahid, and costs less.
Carnage Tyrant is just better than Zahid.
So, why cast Zahid?
The pay off is if you can cast him as a 4 drop because tapping an artifact for two mana is quite strong. But. It just isn't enough since the artifacts are generally just not good enough.
Fountain of renewal, Diamond mare and maybe Treasure map or the Sunburst golem. But that seems to be the only artifacts worthy of constructed.
And they need to be worthy of play by themselves because of the fundamental problem of the Legend rule. Two Zahid's do not share the board, so at most he can be a 3 of, and a 2 of is probably a better idea. As a 2 of, Zahid will not see play in most games. So the artifacts better work.
Treasure Map seems very interesting because of the lovely overlap with Entrancing Melody, and the draw cards effect with the treasure, and the mana sink filtering at the end of their go.
But that really doesn't solve the problem that everyone seems to be able to make big creatures just go away, or make bigger & better ones themselves.
From a historical point of view, Dive Down has never been a more playable card in standard than right now.
Me casting a Zahid, and you eating him with a Chupa does have historic antecedence in that Nekrataal was always good, but, standard is currently a tiny pool, and it is based on creatures, with a few planeswalkers. It just wasn't like that in the past. Combo used to exist, as did mass counters and control.
There is no effective landkill, or lifegain with lockout.
So, everyone knows they have to play creatures, and everyone knows they must be disposable.
And the Nekrataal had some basic problems that Chupa does not, like killing your own creatures if it went wrong.
Ravenous Chupacabra has no backlash. It is just so safe, and so easy. Every black deck should have access to 4 of them as a design starting point in this format. And that really blows.
Every creature in an effective BG deck has a shell left on table, after the wanted effect has happened. The husk is not the reason the creature was cast.
Zahid is not like that, nor is Tempest Djinn, Warkite, or Mystic Archi. All these creatures need to be on the table for them to do something useful.
The tyrant also needs to spend a moment in play before it is useful, but since it has hexproof, it gets to do what it wants. Spending an extra card (& mana) on Dive Down has never seemed more reasonable than in this format.
Entrancing Melody is only going to be effective if it is used on creatures that are similar.
Lyra, Warboss, Steel leaf, LLanowar Elf, most Zombies & Vampires.
But, that just doesn't seem enough.
As a format, Planeswalkers, Chupa and Chainwhirler all force standard creatures off the battlefield.
Tempest Djinn is not a normal creature, nor is most of the short list above, because it is SO powerful at such a small cost. Chupa costs 2BB. Using it on a GGG or UUU creature shouldn't be a fist pump, but it is because those are that powerful that the 2/2 shell left over is actually just a bonus.
Using Chupa on Zahid is just better.
This is the reason I think Horns***gle can be a very effective card.
I just wish that treasure tokens did not need to be untapped to be used for mana.
A different take on the Blue.
A little slower, more reliable, and less flashy Tune.
4 Warkite Marauder
4 Merfolk Trickster
3 Mystic Archaeologist
4 Exclusion Mage
4 Tempest Djinn
4 Essence Scatter
4 Wizard's Retort
2 Entrancing Melody
23 Island
2 Metamorphic Alteration
4 Negate
2 Depths of Desire
2 Surge Mare
2 Horns***gle
1 Entrancing Melody
This is very similar to the current Blue Tempo decks listed here, but not the same.
I am not playing curious obsession, and I am trying to go longer.
I am not a fan of mulligans, and the extra 3 land is significant.
Five of the critical cards that are different use the extra land in very noticeable ways.
The mystic Archaeologists do spend 5 mana and draw 2 cards, sometimes.
The Entrancing Melody does take over creatures, and helps beat red.
Entrancing an Obsession-ed creature on turn 3 sounds good.
My Djinns are bigger.
I am not playing quite as much a glass cannon, but it is going to be less flashy.
Last night I went 3/1 in real life with something quite similar to the above. Dreamcaller Siren was base deck, and only really special once.
Not particularly impressed with the Surge Mare either.
My plan on dealing with Goblin Chainwhirler, Nicol Bolas and all those horrid creatures is to counterspell them with cheaper spells. Seems to work.
Got beat by Dire Fleet death touchers.
The war kites seemed good too. Really helps the ground pounders attack, especially if the exclusion mages force a pick up.
I am thinking about trying to fit more Horns***gle into the deck, maybe from the board, and a couple of Zephid's.
There is something cool about countering their chainwhirler, and then tappng the treasure on turn four to cast a 5/6
4 Merfolk Trickster
3 Mystic Archaeologist
4 Tempest Djinn
4 Horns***gle
2 Zahid, Djinn of the Lamp
1 Anticipate
4 Essence Scatter
4 Wizard's Retort
3 Entrancing Melody
23 Island
4 Exclusion mage
4 Negate
2 Surge Mare
1 Entrancing Melody
3 Spell pierce
4x Warkite Marauder & 4x Exclusion Mage are not doing their jobs.
(Warkite and Exclusion do work against Lyra, which is very real.)
Sure, they are reasonable, and sometimes are the kill, but. . .
I am having trouble with creatures that come into play and do something. Like Chainwhirler, or Nicol Bolas, or Death/Firststrike Pirates
This deck is not really a sprint style deck.
Sometimes it can just flood out too.
Bouncing their curious obsession'ed creature does work, But Entrancing Melody on it is just better.
Entrancing a 3/3 FlameBoy on turn 4 is also great.
So, How to make Entrancing Melody, the namesake of the deck, into a better card?
Hmmmmm.
It needs more mana to be more effective.
Mystic Archi also wants more mana. Five mana is a lot, but it does lock out and win the game if left alone.
As far as long term plans go, it is good. On a 2/1 body for 2 mana, it is also quite fine.
Losing to Chainwhirler is a tad irritating though, and playing 11 creature with 1 defense is just a bit too many.
Merfolk Trickster, remove the unblockable from the 1 cost merfolk, Block and Kill - also works against Obsession.
Is 11 wizards going to be enough to power the Wizards retort?
Going the pirate NO! is also an option, but 8 pirates for the discount doesn't seem enough.
+4 Horns***gle
+2 Zahid, Djinn of the Lamp
+1 Entrancing Melody
+1 Anticipate
The sideboard is really just Spam at this point.
A Diamond mare could be main deck, I spoze.
The UX counter that removes the spell from the game is probably reasonable, but not great.
Matters for the (red 3 cost Damage or Cards?) recursion, and the Black 3/1 that returns to hand, but not much else.
The Horns***gles are kinda silly, but, intellectually they should work to power the Melody, pay for extra cards via the Archi's and in effect pay Two of Zahid's cost. Counter then cast Zahid seems pretty good. Staying alive long enough to just cast Zahid shouldn't be impossible. He does look like a field presence. An emergency use of the Siren Stormcaller when I am tapped out also seems like a good use of the Treasure.
4 sources of Treasure! (Artifacts) doesn't seem enough, but, the current artifacts just don't cut it.
But, Zahid really does though.
At the moment, everyone is casting creatures. No Combo, and not much counter-spells, outside of Essence Scatter, and maybe Wizard's/Pirates NO! .
Maybe this is getting a little top heavy.
Dunno.
Sure aint a sprint deck any more. I think I am now playing 12-16 spells the same as a standard Blue list.
Needs a last card in base deck. Probably some sort of Deck manipulation, I spoze. . .
1U Anticipate
1U Disdainful Stroke
XU Syncopate
1U Search for Azcanta (1 of)
Are all maybes.
Search is strong, but, doesn't feel right.
I think Anticipate seems best, Instant Speed seems important when playing 12 counters.
More Islands/Djinn/Horns***gle/counter/ . . . or even Opt seems OK.
Initial Tournament :
1/2/0 Overall at GGL
1/2 Green/Black Good Creatures 2/0 after in socials.
I kept a 1 lander, with an Opt, on the draw. I discarded 3 times, and almost came back. This was a disappointing way to start a tournament. Maybe it was my own stupid fault. Thats Magic. over the short night I got three 1-landers with an Opt. I kept one other one, and it recovered for the win.
Danube can fight. This is a tricky one to win since all their creatures are good, and I dont really have a solution to the big planeswalkers. If they drop a 6 cost walker, the only real solutions I got are a counter with the Wizards retort, or dodging the activation with a Siren Stormtamer. Having said that, I went for the win and got a Fat Djinn, and he got a Carnage Tyrant. 5/6 Flyer just wasn't going to dance against a 7/6 trample, Hexproof, can't be countered.Carnage Tyrant is a real hassle, And I do not currently have a solution that is going to work. Can't counter, can't tap, and Dino Dont Dance.
Having said that, I still beat him overall. He relies on the Ravenous Chupacabra, and I can counter those. I didn't see any doom whispers. First game got interesting when I wanted to do stuff in a phase he did not know existed. Beginning of combat step is a good time to cast a Trickster.
2/1 Red
Oh My these games were tight.
Two of them came down to him topdecking for the win. One he won, One he lost. He was playing the full compliment of shock, Lightings & Wiz Lightning. Pretty sure the Obsession version of Blue would have just lost, since he also plays the haste fanatic, and the Goblin Chainwhirler. Really don't know what to sideboard against him. Wrong counter at the rong time will just lose games. The Keld song was very silly indeed. He had all four Ghitu Lavarunners in the third game, and lost as I worked out he did not have the second burn spell. I attack with 2 Djinn, for 10, on turn 5. Entrance his 5th creature. Counter, Block, Survive, and kill in the air because he didn't topdeck a burn, and whack him for another 10 in the air.
Oh my.
1/2 Drain Black Vampires
1 lander, Mulligan, Flood. He duressed me on turn 1, and saw 4 land and 2xWizards retorts! Somehow, I won that long, long, game.
Game 2 was no 3rd land. Sigh. Discard spells do work against me if given the oppurtunity.
Mana Flood. Recovered, but can't deal with drain creatures already on table.
Results : Hmmmmm. It has become a very different deck. It aint aggro, and it sure aint control. The sideboard was terrible, and I am not really sure how to improve it.
The entrancing Melodies did work, but only on 1 & 2 cost creatures that had already done something. Only "come into play and do something" creatures seem to get played in this format. Taking a Flamekin off Red was critical, But he did just remove the counters since it had 3 already on it. Melody was the card taken by Duress on turn 1, so, there was that too. Really not sure about them.
Horns***gle worked. really did. And the treasure was generally good too as the Architects got to draw two cards with 4+1 mana a couple of times. The architects do win games if allowed to. There is no Tap symbol on their activation, so with 7 mana play and use is just fine as they get Murder-ed.
Zahid & Anticipate were sadly underwhelming.
Tempest Djinn is an absolute BEAST in this deck.
Good :
Essence scatter, Trickster, Mystic Archi, Siren,
OK :
Opt, Horns***gle
Eh:
Anticipate, Melody, Zahid
I think I might be better off going back to a faster version, with War-Kites.
Horns***gle's really help the Zahid & Melody. As a plan, I can see the whole thing being ACE! against a Lyra or Angels based deck, but, well. . . maybe not against sprint and comes into play creatures, and Carnage tyrants.
Zahid just wasn't special. He didn't get cast one game, came into play and didn't get to be a hero, and got put on the bottom when he was seen as the top card after a mulligan because I did not have a Horns***gle. That doesn't seem good enough. I need more grunt, and the War Kites just seem better, and cheaper. They have a real sprint quality to them.
I want to be able to counter ( while on the draw), nasty 3 cost creatures. RRR, GGG, UUU, 1WW, 1BB . You know the ones.
Essence scatter does the job, but could use some help. I think being able to stop recursion spells and planeswalkers might help too. Syncopate is looking like a playable.
2/1 BG Good stuff
win - Tight. Game goes long. Mystic Archi wins it.
loss - Tight, until a Carnage Tyrant appears and it is over as I look at my 3 counterspells.
win - Tight. Tempo him, just.
2/1 UR counter-burn
Loss 5 spell counter war, twice 13 islands, lots of Mystic Archi activation, more land
Win Flying death
Win Quick flying death
1/2 BG Good Stuff
Win Triple Tricksters, total.
Loss Tight, then Vivian Blowout
Loss Tight almost Melody Him to death, but he recovers. I flood early while he starves, and then Chupas his way back in and it becomes a blowout.
Against a different good Black green in socials 1/0 and then 2/2 after board.
The Mystic Archi's Shovelled out defenders for maybe 6 turns in a row. One turn he double activated. The turn before i just die, I swing with a single Tempest Djinn for 14 damage ! That game he opened with all four Steel Leaf Champs, and 2 Nullhide Ferrox's. All countered, except the last Steel Leaf, which I Entrancing Melody'd, and he then killed.
Melody is really good against little cheature they expect to get good value out of.
Melody Blows against come into play creatures, like Ravenous Chupacubra. The Black/Green explore guys are worth taking, and likely around long enough to take.
Mystic Architect works. Long games, he can swing it. The war kites really help apply pressure, and help get to the long game where Mystic is alive since War kite is a better 2 drop attacker. seriously under-rated, and cheap
Syncopate was a 4 of in base, and seemed OK-ish
Actually, this has to be the cheapest tournament deck out there.
I am playing 13 rares, TOTAL !
Mystic Architect and Entrancing Melody are dollar rares. I think the singleton Dreamcaller Siren in board is trash too.
Warkite Marauder is the most expensive rare !
The most expensive cards are Tempest Djinn & Siren Stormtamer, $2.3 & $4.5 each. . . . . Wow.
.
This deck costs maybe 50 bucks.
I would play more expensive cards, if they were better suited. (I am considering a single "Search for Azcanta", which would DOUBLE THE COST OF THE DECK !)
Really not sure how to approach dealing with a Carnage Tyrant.
Not sure if there is ANY way do deal with it in blue. Sleep? I mean, sure, that solves it for 1 turn. Speeding up by slowing them is sort of a solution, but I prefer to go faster by going faster.
The reason Entrancing Melody is better than an old style Control Magic is because there is no enchantment on it to remove.
The reason it is worse is because it doesn't just grab any creature for four mana. At 3 mana it is way better on a 1-Drop creature, but, WooHoo! really.
At 4 mana, Entrancing grabs a 2-Drop creature better than Control Magic.
At 5 mana, Entrancing grabs a 3 drop creature better than Persuasion.
But, When they cast a 4 drop creature, Entrancing Melody at 6 cost is Great!, but only if you have 6 mana.
And the creature is actually a 4 drop.
Ravenous Chupacabra is not a 4 drop creature, It is a kill spell, with a residual 2 Drop body.
Findkeeper is a regrowth
Almost all creatures that appear on the other side of the table do something the moment they appear, and are not meant to actually win the game by hitting people. Even the Explore creatures in Green & Black are about getting mana more than hitting people in the early game. grabbing a 1/2 or a 2/1 really blows.
Carnage Tyrant, Nullhide, and (UUBB spectre) all have hexproof.
Silver Leaf Champ & Goblin Warboss are both great targets, if you can survive to 5 mana.
Runaway Steam kin is an OK target, and enemy Tempest Djinns are a hoot.
Steal an Obsession'd creature and the game is gunna change
Doom whisperer is just too much, almost always. And Ghalta is just not happening. But would with control magic.
It is really similar to why Exclusion mage really aint as good as a Man-o-war. Man-o-war can bounce my creatures that you are interfering with, and your creatures used to be scarey on table, not as they arrived.
Planeswalkers did not exist back then, and they are the new big scarey creatures.
Hmmmm.
This deck does win rounds, and i was one game off a minor tournament.
but it is a struggle.
The cards that I want to play, just aint there.
At 3 cost and above, nothing else seems tournament viable. Djinn of 3 wishes looks SO weak compared to The Tempest Djinn.
There is no 4 cost 4/4 vannila, let alone with abilities.
hmmmm.
Maybe these obsession types have a point.
The problems are that there is no Big Blue that seems to be worth casting, because everyone can just kill it too easily, and because everyone else has much better creatures.
Zahid is the obvious hugh point in larger blue creatures.
Lyra is just better than Zahid, and costs less.
Carnage Tyrant is just better than Zahid.
So, why cast Zahid?
The pay off is if you can cast him as a 4 drop because tapping an artifact for two mana is quite strong. But. It just isn't enough since the artifacts are generally just not good enough.
Fountain of renewal, Diamond mare and maybe Treasure map or the Sunburst golem. But that seems to be the only artifacts worthy of constructed.
And they need to be worthy of play by themselves because of the fundamental problem of the Legend rule. Two Zahid's do not share the board, so at most he can be a 3 of, and a 2 of is probably a better idea. As a 2 of, Zahid will not see play in most games. So the artifacts better work.
Treasure Map seems very interesting because of the lovely overlap with Entrancing Melody, and the draw cards effect with the treasure, and the mana sink filtering at the end of their go.
But that really doesn't solve the problem that everyone seems to be able to make big creatures just go away, or make bigger & better ones themselves.
From a historical point of view, Dive Down has never been a more playable card in standard than right now.
Me casting a Zahid, and you eating him with a Chupa does have historic antecedence in that Nekrataal was always good, but, standard is currently a tiny pool, and it is based on creatures, with a few planeswalkers. It just wasn't like that in the past. Combo used to exist, as did mass counters and control.
There is no effective landkill, or lifegain with lockout.
So, everyone knows they have to play creatures, and everyone knows they must be disposable.
And the Nekrataal had some basic problems that Chupa does not, like killing your own creatures if it went wrong.
Ravenous Chupacabra has no backlash. It is just so safe, and so easy. Every black deck should have access to 4 of them as a design starting point in this format. And that really blows.
Every creature in an effective BG deck has a shell left on table, after the wanted effect has happened. The husk is not the reason the creature was cast.
Zahid is not like that, nor is Tempest Djinn, Warkite, or Mystic Archi. All these creatures need to be on the table for them to do something useful.
The tyrant also needs to spend a moment in play before it is useful, but since it has hexproof, it gets to do what it wants. Spending an extra card (& mana) on Dive Down has never seemed more reasonable than in this format.
Entrancing Melody is only going to be effective if it is used on creatures that are similar.
Lyra, Warboss, Steel leaf, LLanowar Elf, most Zombies & Vampires.
But, that just doesn't seem enough.
As a format, Planeswalkers, Chupa and Chainwhirler all force standard creatures off the battlefield.
Tempest Djinn is not a normal creature, nor is most of the short list above, because it is SO powerful at such a small cost. Chupa costs 2BB. Using it on a GGG or UUU creature shouldn't be a fist pump, but it is because those are that powerful that the 2/2 shell left over is actually just a bonus.
Using Chupa on Zahid is just better.
This is the reason I think Horns***gle can be a very effective card.
I just wish that treasure tokens did not need to be untapped to be used for mana.