I'm pretty new to Magic, just started playing Arena a while ago (because, well, coronavirus...) but I much prefer building my own decks (plus I only have so many cards unlocked at the moment). This one actually seems to work but it's not quite right so I'm looking for some help. I'm doing mostly Standard, best-of-one matches (did try best-of-three but haven't done many).
The idea is to use Dovin's Acuity along with instants so that you can spam it for life and cards, and other cards which benefit from it being played over and over (e.g. Shark Typhoon, Archon of Sun's Grace). Unsummon works well with it so I also put in a lot of creatures with enters-the-battlefield effects as you can always unsummon your own. Because a lot of things were giving life I originally added white lifegain stuff (Heliod and Pridemates) but this felt like a weird worst-of-both-worlds decks so I replaced them, took out most of the creatures, and added bigger win cards like Sharknado and Mass Manipulation.
I keep switching stuff in and out but the current version looks a bit like this:
I tend to prefer more one-offs as IMO it's more interesting and with Mystic Sanctuary/Mission Briefing you get a bit more choice, but this is a little bit of a mess and I certainly feel like some of these cards are not as good as others. I'm not very happy with Quench (I used to have Sinister Sabotage) and I'm not even sure about stuff like Dawn of Hope (which I really like but I'm not sure fits here).
Main problems:
It's slooow. It struggles early on and even a few turns in, popping and re-casting Dovin's is cool but it eats a lot of mana. The extra card draw does help you keep our lands up in the later game (and you can make use of them) but I sometimes find myself struggling around T3-5 or whatever, being able to cast things but needing and being unable to cast several things in one go.
I die to rush decks a lot, especially stuff with Haste (where soft removal like Unsummon doesn't help). I tried Swallow Whole but I have few creatures of my own to use it with. I can sometimes gain enough life to pull out of it and a lucky Time Wipe can basically win it but I only have one of those - should I have more (and/or Shatter the Sky, etc)? I deliberately didn't put in many counters because I wanted instants which could pop Dovin's but it feels like I'm left with a bad control deck.
Planeswalkers can be a pain as I have few creatures and little direct removal. Mass Manipulation can be devastating against them but at 6+ mana it's not really a plan (especially when people have multiple copies of several different powerful planeswalkers). Narset, Parter of Veils pretty much kills me entirely and I can't usually deal with people like Ugin or Bolas fast enough.
There are a whole bunch of other card I've tried or considered and some I would sideboard (if I were doing Bo3) but they all have their drawbacks so I'm not quite sure what to go with or what to cut. Can this deck be saved?
The idea is to use Dovin's Acuity along with instants so that you can spam it for life and cards, and other cards which benefit from it being played over and over (e.g. Shark Typhoon, Archon of Sun's Grace). Unsummon works well with it so I also put in a lot of creatures with enters-the-battlefield effects as you can always unsummon your own. Because a lot of things were giving life I originally added white lifegain stuff (Heliod and Pridemates) but this felt like a weird worst-of-both-worlds decks so I replaced them, took out most of the creatures, and added bigger win cards like Sharknado and Mass Manipulation.
I keep switching stuff in and out but the current version looks a bit like this:
2 Wall of Runes
2 Cloudkin Seer
1 Deputy of Detention
1 Elite Guardmage
1 Archon of Sun's Grace
1 Riddlemaster Sphinx
Instants (18)
1 Opt
2 Light of Hope
3 Unsummon
1 Stern Dismissal
2 Revitalize
1 Mission Briefing
1 Summary Judgement
1 Quench
1 Run Away Together
1 Depose // Deploy
1 Dovin's Veto
1 Arrester's Admonition
1 Sphinx's Insight
1 Shimmer of Possibility
1 Time Wipe
1 Stolen by the Fae
1 Mass Manipulation
Enchantment (7)
1 Ominous Seas
1 Dawn of Hope
2 Dovin's Acuity
1 Elspeth Conquers Death
2 Shark Typhoon
Planeswalkers (1)
1 Dovin, Hand of Control
Lands (23)
6 Island
2 Mystic Sanctuary
3 Plains
1 Castle Arvendale
1 Idyllic Grange
1 Hallowed Fountain
4 Tranquil Cove
1 Azorious Guildgate
1 Fabled Passage
2 Evolving Wilds
1 Raugrin Triome
I tend to prefer more one-offs as IMO it's more interesting and with Mystic Sanctuary/Mission Briefing you get a bit more choice, but this is a little bit of a mess and I certainly feel like some of these cards are not as good as others. I'm not very happy with Quench (I used to have Sinister Sabotage) and I'm not even sure about stuff like Dawn of Hope (which I really like but I'm not sure fits here).
Main problems:
It's slooow. It struggles early on and even a few turns in, popping and re-casting Dovin's is cool but it eats a lot of mana. The extra card draw does help you keep our lands up in the later game (and you can make use of them) but I sometimes find myself struggling around T3-5 or whatever, being able to cast things but needing and being unable to cast several things in one go.
I die to rush decks a lot, especially stuff with Haste (where soft removal like Unsummon doesn't help). I tried Swallow Whole but I have few creatures of my own to use it with. I can sometimes gain enough life to pull out of it and a lucky Time Wipe can basically win it but I only have one of those - should I have more (and/or Shatter the Sky, etc)? I deliberately didn't put in many counters because I wanted instants which could pop Dovin's but it feels like I'm left with a bad control deck.
Planeswalkers can be a pain as I have few creatures and little direct removal. Mass Manipulation can be devastating against them but at 6+ mana it's not really a plan (especially when people have multiple copies of several different powerful planeswalkers). Narset, Parter of Veils pretty much kills me entirely and I can't usually deal with people like Ugin or Bolas fast enough.
There are a whole bunch of other card I've tried or considered and some I would sideboard (if I were doing Bo3) but they all have their drawbacks so I'm not quite sure what to go with or what to cut. Can this deck be saved?