There are two basic play patterns to victory with this deck:
Stick a Curious Obsession on a cheap creature, protect it, and snowball out of control.
Stick a Tempest Djinn, protect it, and outrace your opponent.
In both cases, other than sticking the named card, you are deploying a plethora of resources in order to jam up your opponent's game plan just long enough to get across the finish line. It's not impossible to win with a "pure tempo" style of game sans obsession or djinn, but it is much more difficult.
This is a deck that plays a lot of close games. You can roll with a nut draw(Mist-Cloaked Herald into Curious Obsession holding up Dive Down), but usually you are trying to manage the game so that you win a turn or two before your opponent would either stabilize or kill you. The deck doesn't have any removal. You are trying to counter bombs and make other creatures irrelevant. Chaining Merfolk Trickster activations can also tempo people out.
Card Choices
Like any tempo deck, the current iteration of mono-blue fish-ish is built on a mix of creatures, interaction, and card draw. And islands.
Siren Stormtamer is a Dive Down on a stick. Typically you use it to beat down and then eventually cash it in to save a bigger and better creature. If your hand is heavy on permission and light on other creatures it can carry a Curious Obsession in a pinch. It also has random utility in countering discard spells, burn to the dome, Risk Factor, and Settle the Wreckage.
Mist-Cloaked Herald is unblockable, which is nice. Obviously does a great job carrying Curious Obsession. Your nut draws will feature Herald, Obsession, and Dive Down. We also like the low CMC so we can hold up other interaction after playing it.
Merfolk Trickster is pretty much the only way you have to interact with resolved creatures. It can ambush a little guy (even if the little guy is evasive), buy time in a race, or clear the way by tapping a blocker. In control matchups it can also be handy to be able to flash it in after a board sweeper. Surprisingly versatile, although you may want to side him out for more specific solutions to your problems in games two and three.
Tempest Djinn is the star of the show. He wins races. He also has a nice big butt, so on the turn you cast it your opponent often can't attack. Typically you want to have some sort of protection before you play him, but if the opponent has you under a lot of pressure sometimes you just jam some Djinns and it works out. Typically when you feel like you stole a game it will involve the Djinn winning a race against a huge lineup of creatures on the other side.
Other Creatures to Consider:
Typically you will see 20 to 22 creatures in this deck. That means there are 6 flex slots. In my mind there are three real candidates here, although I'm open to suggestions:
Nightveil Sprite is a card that I like a lot. We tend to play tight games. The ability to bin useless cards (e.g. extra islands) helps a lot. Also another evasive beater for Curious Obsession.
Warkite Marauder is a more aggressive choice. It hits for one more than the sprite. It also neutralizes a blocker, which is very handy in a world where Rekindling Phoenix is standard legal. It gets better the fewer Chainwhirlers you run into. Overall it's a matchup or a meta call whether you want the Marauder to push through damage or the Sprite for card selection.
Exclusion Mage is a reactive card. It's at its best swinging races by bouncing one guy and then blocking another. It can also clear the way for your attacks and delay the reckoning involved with something like Niv-Mizzet hitting the battlefield. It doesn't attack very well and in my opinion it's more of a sideboard card. I could see fitting some number in the main deck depending on the meta.
2. Card Draw
This is a blue deck so we naturally have some choices. Typically you are going to want to devote four slots to card draw. You may want more after sideboard, though I usually find I have more pressing concerns.
The Big Two:
Chart a Course - We want to be attacking. We want to draw cards. Chart a Course is a natural fit. The only reason not to jam four and call it a day is that it is sorcery speed and costs two mana.
Opt - A lot of the time we only want one specific thing (lands, countermagic, creatures) rather than just moar cards. Opt gives you just as much of a chance of finding what you want as Chart a Course for one less mana and at instant speed. Plus, nothing tilts your opponent like Opt-ing into a counterspell while their bomb is on the stack.
Other Possibilities:
Radical Idea is just too much mana and too much time, I think. We aren't doing anything crazy that pays us off for casting multiple spells, so four mana to draw two and discard one is pretty meh. On the other hand, it is instant speed. It also gives you an excuse to break out your totally radical TMNT impression, if you put any value on that.
Discovery // Dispersal is mostly just a worse version of Chart a Course. To be fair, it does let us dig one card deeper. We're never going to cash in the back half.
Anticipate is the forgotten card selection spell in standard. Digs one card deeper than Chart a Course at instant speed. Might be worthwhile, although I haven't seen any 5-0 lists actually playing it.
Chemister's Insight is a card that will make you very sad as your control opponent uses it to pull away. Unfortunately we just can't swing the mana cost. Maaaaybe out of the sideboard in slow matchups, but I'm skeptical.
3. Countermagic
Again, we're playing blue, we have options. Standard has a diverse set of counterspells available at the moment.
Dive Down is amazing right now. Standard is awash with targeted removal, and Dive Down trades up on mana with all of them. It even saves your Curious Obsession carriers from Deafening Clarion. I think this is a four of for the foreseeable future and I very rarely board it out.
Spell Pierce is hit or miss. Recently I've been running into a lot of four and five mana bombs that line up nicely for it. Hitting a Teferi with a Spell Pierce using your one open island is the best feeling you can have at a magic tournament without doing something that will get you kicked out of the facilities. Loses some utility in the late game, although it's usually still relevant if a counter war starts up. Also loses utility when the opponent starts playing around it, although them playing around it can be its own reward.
Wizard's Retort counters whatever you want. No muss, no fuss. Half the time we're getting to play it like a genuine Counterspell, which is pretty sweet. This one seems to be a 4 of in every list.
Essence Scatter is live against most decks. I can certainly see the argument for maindecking a few of them. Especially since mono-blue is naturally poor at removal. Hitting Ravenous Chupacabra, Golgari Findbroker, or Lyra Dawnbringer feels good. It does hurt when you go to the trouble to keep two mana open and the opponent drops a planeswalker, though.
Negate is probably a sideboard card. It wouldn't be totally insane to maindeck one or two but there are good decks out there that will run you over without really caring about their non-creature spells being countered.
Disdainful Stroke is interesting. It hits an awful lot of stuff (Vraska's Contempt or Chupacabra or most planeswalkers). It also misses on some important cards (Plaguecrafter, Jadelight Ranger, Deafening Clarion). Again, not totally crazy to maindeck a couple but a more natural fit in the sideboard.
Sinister Sabotage is probably too rich for our blood. We aren't getting any special value out of the surveil and the four retorts are already a lot of unconditional counters. Maybe pack one or two in the side if you want to really load up for control matches (or if you want to save space compared to stocking Negate, Essence Scatter, and Disdainful Stroke in the side).
Syncopate hits everything and works great against somebody who's curving out. It even exiles pesky jump start cards. I wouldn't go too heavy on it since we usually wind up falling behind in land count compared to our opponents but depending on your preferences you might want one or two in the 75.
4. Removal Other Interaction
Well, we're mono blue, so removing creatures isn't really our bag. That said, we do have a few options available to mess with stuff on the battlefield juuuuust enough to get us through to the end of the game. Sometimes. These cards are narrow and underpowered enough that their natural home is the sideboard.
Unsummon is the classic blue "removal" spell. Typically a signature card of the blue tempo genre, it isn't showing up in the 5-0 lists. You do get the same effect from Exclusion Mage, though.
Explorers of Ixalan, unlike Rivals of Ixalan, is not a standard legal set. Unsummon is therefore not standard legal, explaining why it isn't showing up in successful standard lists.
Blink of an Eye is Unsummon's big brother. Bouncing a card and drawing a card for four mana is basically Cryptic Command, right? Compared to Unsummon we have the ever present mana cost worry but in exchange we get a lot more versatility.
Metamorphic Alteration can make Niv-Mizzet, Parun into a more manageable creature or, if you're feeling cheeky, roll your own Niv-Mizzet. Personally I've found it a little inconsistent but two mana to deal with (kind of) your opponent's biggest creature is a good rate.
Deep Freeze is basically Thopter Arrest. Pay no attention to that wall that's left behind. Three mana at sorcery speed can be a pain in the neck to come up with, but it does take out stuff like Rekindling Phoenix and Niv-Mizzet.
Time of Ice swings races quite a bit. The first guy that you hit will miss three full block/attack combat cycles, while the second guy will miss two. Also has some nice synergy with Merfolk Trickster. The final bonus is that the last bounce happens without any mana investment, so you have a good chance to counter everything on the way back down.
Sleep is another race-swinging card. More dramatic than Time of Ice but not as long lasting. Also doesn't make the opponent waste time recasting anything. Fantastic on a board stall.
5. Special Mention
The straw that stirs the drink. The gas in our motor. The spring in our step. The source of our je ne sais quoi.
Curious Obsession lets us run away with games if it goes unchecked. In general you want to prioritize getting this out securely over getting it out quickly. The more creatures your opponent kills before you dig in and protect your Obsession bearer, the more value you're likely to get out of it. Ultimately you will win more games with Tempest Djinn but the Obsession is often what makes those wins possible.
6. Islands
Tempest Djinn is pretty sad without 'em. You're going to want 20 or 21, depending on whether your card draw and counter flex spots lean more towards one mana spells or two mana spells.
I personally like Revised islands for the classic art and convenient white border, but reasonable people can differ.
7. Sideboard
Typically you will want to use the sideboard to tune your counter suite and to bring in some race-swinging cards as discussed above. You also will probably want some dedicated anti-aggro slots, since we are a smidge vulnerable to getting rushed out of the game if our draw isn't the best.
Anti-aggro tech:
Diamond Mare looks like it should be good against aggro. In my experience it's mediocre at best. It can't block the big threats (Chainwhirler, Steam-kin, Branchwalker, Jadelight, etc). We only cast blue spells but we don't cast that many in the abbreviated rush of an aggro race. It can trade with Lightning Mare, if that's something you're seeing a lot of.
Surge Mare on the other hand, is the real deal. An 0/5 wall is just what the doctor ordered in the early game, and it even threatens to attack late. I also like it against control decks that lean on red removal since the big butt makes it so hard to kill. In that situation it is also a fantastic Curious Obsession carrier. I also bring in a couple against Golgari for Sprites since it blocks all of their guys, sometimes randomly has evasion, and doesn't get shot down by that green reach fight dude.
Tempest Djinn math: 4 + 5 + 6 = 15. 5 + 6 + 7 = 18. In other words, scraping together 2-5 points of damage from your non-Djinn cards can shorten the clock presented by the Djinn by a full turn.
Know your opponent: This deck rewards you for knowing your opponent. This allows you to, for example, make the right decision about when to use Spell Pierce and when to use Dive Down. It's also important to know when you can get away with jamming a Djinn sans protection and when you have to try anyways. You really have to know what your opponent is trying to do so that you can mess it up. This deck has a few obvious plays but usually it presents you with a lot of options as early as turn two.
Know your opponent(2): Standard has more (relatively) cheap uncounterable spells running around than usual. Banefire, Niv-Mizzet, Parun, and Carnage Tyrant. All cards you should be aware of. When you're running away with a game and you have to decide whether to develop the board or hold up maximum counter-magic, keep these cards in mind. It really hurts to die to a Niv-Mizzet while you stare at the two counterspells in your hand because you took your foot off the gas too soon.
Sideboarding: the specific suggestions are based around my preferred list that is at the end of the primer. The general principles of what counters are good in what matchups and when you need to bring in your bounce/tempo stuff should hold even if your sideboard differs in the particulars.
Golgari Grind
This is not a deck that you are going to exhaust of resources unless they have a terrible draw. The way you beat them, especially in game one, is by outracing them in the air. Typically this involves resolving a Tempest Djinn and protecting it. Getting Curious Obsession going is nice, but mostly because it gets you towards dropping the Djinn with Dive Down or Stormtamer up. Drawing two cards a turn by itself isn't enough against their steady stream of 2 for 1s. Merfolk Trickster does good tempo work tapping Jadelight Rangers and trading for their x/2s.
Golgari runs a lot of juicy Spell Pierce targets (both Vraskas, Vraska's Contempt, The Eldest Reborn) but the playset of Chupacabra can jam you up through a pierce.
Disdainful Stroke is great against a deck with so many 4+ mana bombs. Essence Scatter has a ton of targets as well. Surge Mare acting as a wall is surprisingly good in a race and, unlike Nightveil Sprite, it doesn't get eaten by Kraul Harpooner. Their noncreature spells are all so expensive that Spell Pierce is basically a cheaper Negate.
I've had good success against this deck overall, but every game win has been close while many of the games lost have been utter stomps. The Golgari deck is powerful. It can be beaten, but you need to be on your game.
Red Aggro
The name of the game is Don't Die. Don't be shy about trading your 1/1s for Fanatical Firebrand or Viashino Pyromancer. On a related point, try not to overextend to the point of getting blown out by Goblin Chainwhirler. Fire off your Spell Pierce any time you have a chance to counter something, since the card gets real dead real fast. Don't forget that Stormtamer can counter Risk Factor.
Sometimes you can get them with a Trickster ambush--don't forget that Trickster drops the Lavarunner back to 1/2 status. Tempest Djinn does good work here, if you and the Djinn both live long enough for it to matter. If you have luxury to do it, try to keep a Wizard's Retort ready for their four mana haymakers. Hazoret is gone, but Rekindling Phoenix and Experimental Frenzy are still scary at four.
Game one is an uphill battle. You really want to be on the play and you can still get run over if their hand is good enough.
Sideboard: -4 Spell Pierce, -2 Opt, -1 Wizard's Retort, -2 Mist-Cloaked Herald, +2 Exclusion Mage, +4 Surge Mare, +1 Time of Ice, +2 Essence Scatter
It's possible you don't want the Essence Scatter, but I like to hedge a little bit against Chainwhirler and Rekindling Phoenix. Surge Mare is a great blocker in this matchup. Any kind of bounce is also quite good against Runaway Steam-Kin.
Boros Aggro
To be added.
Selesneya Tokens
To be added.
Esper Control
Be patient. Be patient. Seriously, be patient.
This is a pretty good matchup. You can make it a bad matchup, however, if you overextend into a Ritual of Soot or make it easy for your opponent to resolve a Teferi.
This is a matchup where an unchecked Curious Obsession will most likely win the game. If you have multiple creatures it's not a bad idea to let the first one or two die so you have a better chance to keep the last one alive for multiple turns. Also, these games usually go long enough that an unchecked Nightveil Sprite makes a big impact even without an obsession attached.
Chip in for a point or two of damage per turn, keep a counter in reserve for Teferi, and you should be ok.
Trickster flashing in is neat and all, but with no targets available to tap it's not that impressive. Obviously you want to load up on counterspells for this matchup. It's possible you even want to drop the remaining tricksters for Surge Mare just for the loot, although the constant mana cost is a bummer.
Jeskai Control
To be added.
Izzet Spells / Control
To be added.
Dimir Control
To be added.
Is it Good?
I think so. I think you have to respect any deck that puts up a 5-0 finish every week. More qualitatively, the nut draws are really nutty. Mist-cloaked Herald into Obsession into counter all your spells is brutal. The mediocre draws can at least put up a bit of a fight and give you chance to draw out of things. The one piece that's missing is a catch up card that can flip over a bad board state (we miss you Engulf the Shore). Even so I think the deck is solidly top tier or at least solidly a single notch below top tier.
The deck has a bit of reputation online as the budget competitive deck. While it's true that the deck is cheap--the whole thing costs less than a single Teferi -- none of the cards were chosen for budget reasons. Tempest Djinn wouldn't become better if it were a chase mythic. Maybe the deck's record suffers because inexperienced players gravitate towards it for budget reasons, but that's not a problem with the deck itself. Good pilots have been putting up good results with it week in, week out.
Time will tell if the deck has staying power as the meta develops, but don't dismiss it just because it's cheap.
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On a personal note, my current list looks like this:
Typical sideboard plan is to take out two Opt and two Spell Pierce in favor of either bounce or specialized countermagic. Then one or two Sprites and/or one or two Tricksters for Surge Mare if the matchup calls for it.
The deck is a lot of fun to play. Take it, tweak it to suit your own tastes, and try it out! I think you'll be happy you did.
"To keep things 100, anything I state is an opinion and not intended to be a fact. Any and all suggestions I give are a 100% opinion. If you need further clarification take the conversation to a PM. I am not in the business of assuming things. I'm only interested in 1 business and that business serves 2 things, Cold L's and Hot Dub's."
Shouldn't this go in Proven? Since we know that these decks are viable?
Also would a pure flyers deck work as an alternative or would it get too far away from the tempo based approach of the deck?
If somebody wants to move this to Proven I'd be ok with it, but it needs to show a little more staying power before I'd really agitate for it. The deck might get hated out in the next couple weeks. At first glance it struggles a little with very aggressive decks because it doesn't really have a great way to catch up once it gets behind on board.
You definitely have the creatures available to make a Favorable Winds deck in this standard. I think it's more of a cousin to this deck than a variant (ditto with UG merfolk). With Favorable Winds you're looking to curve out and overwhelm the opponent with synergies while maybe countering one spell. With the tempo deck you're looking to ride one or two threats most of the way and counter your opponent's bombs and removal.
After running into some more red decks out in the wild I have to say that Surge Mare is pretty great. Tough to remove, stonewalls Chainwhirler, threatens to loot. Honestly I like it better out of the board than the Diamond Mare, although the Diamond Mare is solid.
On the other hand, it's kind of embarrassing to run a deck in this day and age that has an 0/5 wall as its best response to resolved creatures. I'm tempted to slide into Dimir. Swap out Tempest Djinn for Thief of Sanity and play some real removal. Nightveil Predator seems like a nice fit with Curious Obsession. You could go big with Doom Whisperer and/or fit in a more controlling package with Disinformation Campaign and Thought Erasure.
I don't know. I've won games on the strength of Tempest Djinn, but I've also lost games because of a lack of removal. It feels like there ought to be a good Dimir tempo deck in the format somewhere.
I agree. I've tried the mono blue a bit, and felt that I really wanted to go UB. the problem it's, absurdly, not the lack of choice but its abundance once we open to black cards.
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Huey, Dewey and Louie are always dressed in RUG. it is CLEARLY going to be the wedges block Pioneer: WURFaerie fires BRGDragons ModernBGElves WRBurn UR Fires Turns URGift Storm UG Twiddle Storm
"To keep things 100, anything I state is an opinion and not intended to be a fact. Any and all suggestions I give are a 100% opinion. If you need further clarification take the conversation to a PM. I am not in the business of assuming things. I'm only interested in 1 business and that business serves 2 things, Cold L's and Hot Dub's."
For me once you go UB the natural thing is to go higher up on the curve and play tap out control. The problem I kept running into is that the removal in the format is so good that everybody is prepared to kill all your stuff. So then you might as well go even higher up the curve, drop the cheap creatures and Curious Obsessions, and just do Doom Whisperer control.
The advantage of the mono blue shell is that once you get a good creature carrying Curious Obsession or a Tempest Djinn then you can pass every turn with mana up, counter anything that turns the tide, and close the game out quickly. Trying to out-grind the Golgari decks is really tough but in my experience out tempo-ing them is pretty doable.
Surge Mare continues to be awesome. I like it against any aggro and any deck leaning heavily on red removal. The fish horse laughs off Deafening Clarion and can even swing in for four in the late game.
My current anti-aggro experimental card is Time of Ice. Haven't drawn it yet in real play but it seems like it should be good.
We also have a third 5-0 list with some changes from both of the lists in the original post:
I have to say, I love the mathematical clarity here. Twenty lands, twenty creatures, twenty spells. Everything a four of. This is a deck that knows what it wants to do.
The land count seems aggressive. The deck has an average CMC of 1.7 (1.6 if you count Wizard's Retort as a 2), which ordinarily would suggest 21 lands. Usually CMC of 1.12-1.44 is 20 lands, 1.44-1.76 is 21, and 1.76-2.08 is 20. The playset of Opts might change the math a bit, I don't know.
The full playset of main deck Exclusion Mage seems geared towards the aggro matchup. It also gives the deck four more ways to clear blockers out of the way once they've hit the battlefield. This is particularly important because of the other big change...
Four main deck Spell Pierce and no Essence Scatter! Now I like Spell Pierce as much as the next guy (as long as Waterd isn't the next guy), but four is a lot. The only way this deck can put opposing creatures in the bin is with Wizard's Retort. I guess the idea is to tap or bounce as needed. There is some nice symmetry in the full playset of Opts that come along with the Spell Pierces to make use of that open mana.
It's a really interesting list and I think it goes to show that there is still tinkering to be done within the archetype.
imo, I think this person just said I'll just go all in and counter everything and just get in with Mist-Cloaked Herald He cut Nightveil Sprite and let it just go all wizards.
Deck is super low to the ground.
I agree with Spell-pierce be main-decked for 4. As rough as a call it can be ultimately it is as good as you can do in the early game. For all we know he might be doubling up with these.
Sideboard is interesting call as well at 4 Negate. Also note that Disdainful stroke was pulled as well.
"To keep things 100, anything I state is an opinion and not intended to be a fact. Any and all suggestions I give are a 100% opinion. If you need further clarification take the conversation to a PM. I am not in the business of assuming things. I'm only interested in 1 business and that business serves 2 things, Cold L's and Hot Dub's."
imo, I think this person just said I'll just go all in and counter everything and just get in with Mist-Cloaked Herald He cut Nightveil Sprite and let it just go all wizards.
Deck is super low to the ground.
I tried this out in a friendly league and got absolutely trucked 4 times in a row. When this version runs hot it's amazing (Herald -> Obsession -> Protection -> Djinn -> Exclusion) but I found it really inconsistent. The only card selection is the opts.
Nightveil Sprite is great at carrying Curious Obsession into the red zone if you can protect it. Exclusion Mage isn't. Sure, if you already have your Herald doing work then you'd rather draw the Mage, but it really hurts the consistency when you only have twelve evasive creatures in the deck.
We also get a lot of mileage out of the surveil. We really want to get to land 4 or 5 but we really don't want to draw any land after that. We aren't running bombs where we can just kind of draw like crap forever and then oops-we-win. We need the right mix of cards at the right time. I really like how the Sprite can smooth out your draws. It also makes it a bit less painful to play stuff like Spell Pierce that's dead late when we can sometimes just surveil it away.
Maybe I was playing it wrong and this version needs more aggressive mulligans or something. It must be doing something right to get the 5-0.
Once I swapped out the mage for the sprite I was very happy with how the deck played. Went through a friendly league at 4-1 against Golgari grind (2-0), Grixis Control (1-2), Boros Aggro (2-0), Jeskai Control (2-0), and Golgari grind (2-0). The Grixis deck was a bit odd. I probably could have played better if I'd figured out earlier on what he was doing, but he wound up getting me with Niv-Mizzet twice.
I like the Nightveil Sprite a lot as an early play that starts tilting the game in our favor if it lives. It also makes the creature curve look more like a 20 land deck. My current list if anybody wants to try it out:
Main deck Spell Pierce is better than I thought right now. Everybody is playing big spells (Vraska's Contempt, Vraska 4 and Vraska 6, The Eldest Reborn, Teferi, Ral, Experimental Frenzy) except maybe Boros Aggro, and even there you can snipe History of Benalia sometimes.
Did Time of Ice ever work out? or was it too slow?
Mainly curious about the sideboard. I can see Exclusion Mage or Blink of an Eye but not necessarily both even though the latter does give card advantage.
Overall, I think the deck is pretty well tuned even though it's early in the meta.
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"To keep things 100, anything I state is an opinion and not intended to be a fact. Any and all suggestions I give are a 100% opinion. If you need further clarification take the conversation to a PM. I am not in the business of assuming things. I'm only interested in 1 business and that business serves 2 things, Cold L's and Hot Dub's."
Did Time of Ice ever work out? or was it too slow?
I'm just indecisive on the bounce effect of choice between Time of Ice, Exclusion Mage, and Blink of an Eye. Time of Ice is probably a little better against aggro and gives you three turns of not worrying about the first blocker you tap, but it's not so hot against Niv-Mizzet. I figured with 20 lands the 4 mana was a little ambitious.
I find the heavy Izzet decks to be a tough matchup. Infinite cheap red removal plus drakes into Niv-Mizzet is rough. Really makes me miss Commit. I'm tempted to try to wedge in some Deep Freeze action or something.
"To keep things 100, anything I state is an opinion and not intended to be a fact. Any and all suggestions I give are a 100% opinion. If you need further clarification take the conversation to a PM. I am not in the business of assuming things. I'm only interested in 1 business and that business serves 2 things, Cold L's and Hot Dub's."
As far as the izzet decks that probably justifies needing Diamond Mare since it gives us lifegain against those decks.
I'm more worried about running out of gas against Izzet than getting raced out. Surge Mare is nice because it's tough for them to kill and it has a real chance to get in and loot. Diamond Mare seems very meh for that matchup.
The plan with Carnage Tyrant is to race it. It is sad when a Golgari deck manages to grind away until they drop the Tyrant on an empty board, but I think at that point you just have to tip your hat to them and move on. Hopefully we'll pick up a Commit or Venser type effect at some point.
I updated the initial post to look more like a proper primer. Now I'm crossing my fingers and hoping the deck puts up enough results to justify the effort.
"To keep things 100, anything I state is an opinion and not intended to be a fact. Any and all suggestions I give are a 100% opinion. If you need further clarification take the conversation to a PM. I am not in the business of assuming things. I'm only interested in 1 business and that business serves 2 things, Cold L's and Hot Dub's."
Love this deck. I think the MB essence scatters are essential. Not a huge fan of Exclusion Mage on the main board. It does carry the important Wizard subtype but 3 mana sorcery bounce is terrible and the 2/2 doesn't do much for this deck outside of blocking.
I'm running the list with 4x Nightveil Sprite and loving it. Surveil every turn fix your draws incredibly well and some degree of library manipulation is needed because the deck relies so much in drawing a good balance of lands, creatures and non-creature spells.
Love this deck. I think the MB essence scatters are essential. Not a huge fan of Exclusion Mage on the main board. It does carry the important Wizard subtype but 3 mana sorcery bounce is terrible and the 2/2 doesn't do much for this deck outside of blocking.
I'm running the list with 4x Nightveil Sprite and loving it. Surveil every turn fix your draws incredibly well and some degree of library manipulation is needed because the deck relies so much in drawing a good balance of lands, creatures and non-creature spells.
Exclusion Mage at best best is ran of as a 2 of in the main deck. Preferably as a 2/2 split with nightveil Sprite. It does the job it needs to due and really that decision is dependent upon your meta.
"To keep things 100, anything I state is an opinion and not intended to be a fact. Any and all suggestions I give are a 100% opinion. If you need further clarification take the conversation to a PM. I am not in the business of assuming things. I'm only interested in 1 business and that business serves 2 things, Cold L's and Hot Dub's."
Think there is a case to be made for Jace, Cunning Castaway
Also not 19 lands which is lower than the other 3.
19 lands seems kind of crazy to me, especially if you want to bring in three and four drops out of the sideboard. Still, 6-3 in the online PTQ is a solid result. I'll add it to the original post.
What matchups do you want Jace for? He doesn't do that much. I think he gets consideration because the non-Djinn three drops in standard are so weak at the moment.
Love this deck. I think the MB essence scatters are essential. Not a huge fan of Exclusion Mage on the main board. It does carry the important Wizard subtype but 3 mana sorcery bounce is terrible and the 2/2 doesn't do much for this deck outside of blocking.
I'm running the list with 4x Nightveil Sprite and loving it. Surveil every turn fix your draws incredibly well and some degree of library manipulation is needed because the deck relies so much in drawing a good balance of lands, creatures and non-creature spells.
I think going up to 22 creatures and fitting two Exclusion Mage in there can make sense. I'm a little surprised to see so few Unsummon or Blink of an Eye running around, but I guess the 2/2 body is a relevant blocker in most matchups.
I agree that we want four flying two drops and I share your love for the sprite. Getting a surveil every turn is huge for us. I wouldn't go to the marauder unless I started seeing a lot more flying blockers running around.
Essence Scatter vs Spell Pierce is a meta call, I think. I will note that there are decks where Essence Scatter is just dead, while Spell Pierce usually has at least one or two available targets. Also that one is less than two. OTOH Essence Scatter is the only blue card designed to put a creature in the graveyard, which can be a nice effect to have available. Remember that either Essence Scatter or Spell Pierce is the third "counterspell" added to the deck after Wizard's Retort and Dive Down.
My seven card hand is amazing: 2 island, herald, stormtamer, trickster, djinn, spell pierce.
I play stormtamer into herald. My opponent plays steam vents, then accidentally clicks through his turn two and discards field of ruin. My draws are island into djinn so I go ahead and jam a djinn on three. He scoops without casting a spell.
I mulligan a one lander and keep a six of 2 island, 2 stormtamer, trickster, dive down.
First couple turns I play stormtamer into (drawn) herald, while opponent plays search for azcanta. Turn three I attack and pass and he EOT justice strikes stormtamer. He passes turn four and I flash in trickster EOT.
I draw curious obsession with spell pierce and dive down in hand, but he has four open mana, so I just attack. He justice strikes Trickster once it hits the red zone. I play stormtamer into an essence scatter and pass. Opponent plays crackling drake (3/4) and passes.
Curious obsession goes on the Herald and it starts doing work. Opponent plays Teferi with one mana up and it gets pierced. I draw a second obsession and put it on the herald. Herald keeps slamming in while I draw more and more protection and opponent never draws anything that can deal with it.
Round 2: Grixis Control (2-0)
Game one
I mull a no lander into a strong one lander: island, pierce, stormtamer, obsession, trickster, djinn. I scry an island to the top.
Stormtamer gets shocked. I flash in Trickster on the end of his third turn. After I draw my hand is: pierce, obsession, djinn, opt, dive down. I jam the obsession and go for it. Opponent has no plays so I get to draw a stormtamer.
Next turn he casts discovery into a land. I rip another obsession and play it. I also peel an island. He taps out for Eldest Reborn into my spell pierce. Turn six Niv-Mizzet gets Trickstered and that's the game.
I keep a meh seven: 2 island, pierce, retort, retort, exclusion mage, sprite
Turn one I draw an island and then spell pierce his turn two search for azcanta, which is nice. My nightveil sprite eats a lava coil. I go ahead and jam a turn three djinn, since it isn't getting better any time soon. He passes, so the djinn starts doing work. My hand is exclusion mage, herald, 2x retort, disdainful stroke.
I get two hits in with the djinn and play the herald leaving three islands up. He has fight with fire backed with ionize to kill the djinn. Herald knocks him to 12 and I pass. He plays Niv Mizzet. I draw and play an exclusion mage and stormtamer and hit him to 11. He plays niv mizzet. I play exclusion mage and herald and hit him to 7. He plays Chemister's insight and scoops.
I'm pretty sure he could have won if he had just jammed Niv-Mizzet one more time. I was out of bounces. He would have eaten a mage and gone to 2. Once he untapped with Niv-Mizzet he would have wiped my board. I guess he put me on infinite bounce or something. I'll take it and go to 2-0.
Round 3: Izzet Dracophoenix (2-1)
Game one
I mull a no lander and keep a decent one land six: island, pierce, dive down, opt, stormtamer, sprite. I scry a sprite to the bottom. Turn one I play opt on his EOT and ship a herald to the bottom, drawing Wizard's Retort.
I draw islands the next two turns and play Stormtamer into Sprite. I did not spell pierce his naked chart a course, which let him dump a phoenix in the graveyard.
The sprite reveals a curious obsession, which I keep on top. I pierce his next chart a course. Obsession goes on the sprite, revealing a djinn, which I keep. He shocks stormtamer, lava coils Sprite into Dive Down, and casts a Radical Idea that I spell pierce. Phoenix comes back and plays defense. I opt into a trickster and swing again.
He plays running Crackling Drakes and gets back another phoenix. It's too much flying value and I go down.
Sideboard: -2 Trickster -3 Sprite -2 Opt +2 Blink +2 Surge Mare +2 Essence Scatter +1 Time of Ice
Game two
I keep seven: 3 island, sprite, spell pierce, blink of an eye, obsession
I jam a turn two sprite, which unexpectedly survives. Opponent taps out for discovery, so I go ahead and jam obsession. Surveil reveals dive down, which I keep while casting Herald.
At the end of turn 4 my hand is stacked: Retort, 2x dive down, pierce, blink of an eye, essence scatter. I counter literally every spell my opponent casts that affects the board while the Sprite takes me to value town and then the winner's circle.
Game three
I keep a slightly speculative seven: 3 island, obsession, blink, pierce, exclusion mage.
I'm immediately rewarded by drawing Tempest Djinn into Stormtamer while opponent cantrips away. I play Stormtamer and pierce the shock attempt. Opponent untaps and Lava Coils it, so I go ahead and jam the Djinn. He has the second Lava Coil, unfortunately.
Turn 5 I draw and play Stormtamer. Opponent shocks it, I pierce it. He untaps and plays shock on stormtamer, Chart a Course, and jump starts a radical idea to get his phoenix down.
I untap and exclusion mage the phoenix. He spends his turn fiery cannonade-ing the mage. My hand at this point is Blink, Time of Ice, Curious Obsession.
I draw Essence Scatter and pass. He plays the Phoenix, I kick a blink of an eye. I draw and play stormtamer. He plays phoenix again and holds it back to block. I Time of Ice it and play my topdecked Mist-Cloaked Herald.
He plays Crackling Drake and passes. Time of Ice taps it down and I suit up the Herald before sending the team. I draw and play a second Curious Obsession on the Herald. Hand as I pass back is Essence Scatter and Wizard's Retort.
My thinking is that with three lands up I can protect my Herald from two spells and I am going to want maximum mana open after Time of Ice ultimates. As it happens he has a fight with fire, which I retort. When I pass back after the big bounce I have two essence scatters, obsession, and Trickster in hand.
Opponent scoops after I scatter both his guys.
Round 4: Jeskai Control (2-0)
Game one
I keep what could be a stacked seven: 3 island, 2 obsession, stormtamer, dive down.
I play turn one stormtamer and play it safe as I draw a bunch of islands to start off. Opponent develops his mana and casts no spells for four turns.
Turn four I draw and play nightveil sprite. Opponent casts Chemister's Insight, then untaps and jams Teferi into two open mana. He gets paid off as I have no counter for it.
I decide it's YOLO time and double obsession the sprite. Sprite goes at opponent, stormtamer at Teferi. Surveil reveals a Retort, which I keep. Opponent plays deafening clarion, which I let go. He tries to tuck the sprite and I dive it down.
The sprite finishes off Teferi and I play a stormtamer. I have the Retort for his next Teferi, drop a third obsession on the sprite, and that's that.
Sideboard: -2 Opt, -2 Sprite, -2 Trickster, +2 Disdainful Stroke, +2 Surge Mare, +2 Blink of an Eye.
Game two
I keep a decent seven: four islands, retort, pierce, djinn.
I draw a herald and go ahead and leave my island up. Sure enough, opponent jams Search into my Spell Pierce. Feels good.
I play herald the next turn and start the beats. Opponent keeps his mana open, so I hold the Djinn for now. I do draw and play stormtamer turn four. I retort his deafening clarion and jam djinn, then retort his next clarion. Beatdown team gets in, I Stormtamer his Teferi tuck attempt and kill Teferi as I knock him to three. He gets the Seal Away but my surviving Heralds knock him to 1.
He has Lyra and a lightning strike but it's not enough as the Herald gets through for exactsies.
Round 5: Golgari Grind (2-1)
I keep a shaky seven: four islands, retort, two stormtamers.
Opponent plays Branchwalker into District Guide while I draw island into djinn. I retort his turn four Jadelight Ranger, drop the Djinn, and I'm feeling pretty good about myself.
Then he plays Doom Whisperer.
I get lucky with the topdecks and decide to force the action: Curious Obsession onto Djinn, attack to force a block, Dive Down to kill his guy. Unfortunately he surveils into another Doom Whisperer.
A trickster off the top would let me steal the game. It's a Wizard's Retort instead.
My opening seven looks good: 2 island, 2 stormtamer, 2 djinn, 1 retort
I draw running islands off the top and jam a djinn on turn 4 with 1 mana up. Chupacabra gets stormtamered, I knock him to 9 and play another djinn, passing with two mana up.
Vraska's Contempt gets stormtamered and that's that.
Running Djinns present a crazy fast clock.
Sideboard tweak: -1 sprite, -1 trickster, +2 surge mare
Game three
My seven is ok: 3 island, herald, stormtamer, retort, dive down
I lead on herald into stormtamer opting into trickster. Opponent plays Wildgrowth Walker into Branchwalker. Branchwalker reveals a Chupacabra, which he keeps.
My turn three I swing and pass. His turn four the same. He appears content to trade five for two instead of running Chupacabra into open mana.
On his turn five trickster taps wildgrowth walker and then trades with branchwalker. My turn five I swing and run out herald. He contempts it and I let it go (hand is retort, dive down, disdainful stroke).
I retort the Branchwalker he tries to play next turn, swing for 2 (life total is 18 him 11 me), and play Surge Mare. Disdainful Stroke picks off Chupacabra.
Next turn I pump the Mare and swing for four, looting away an island for a Trickster. He plays little Vraska. Dive Down counters her kill attempt.
Next turn I pump the Mare twice and kill Vraska while knocking him down to 7, looting away another island for a Tempest Djinn.
Opponent untaps into Doom Whisperer. I draw an Obsession and drop it on the Herald, swing for two, and play Djinn (life is now 5 for him to 7 for me).
Opponent plays Vivien Reed, stormtamer eats her activation, trickster taps Doom Whisperer, and that's that.
You don't get a 5-0 without some good fortune. I never hit a terrible matchup and I never had to mull to five.
That said, part of the reason I didn't have to mull to five is that the deck is capable of winning off a six card one land hand. And part of the reason I didn't see a bad matchup is that the bad matchups are not a big part of the metagame.
What this really emphasized for me is the importance of developing a sense of timing. This deck usually rewards you for being a little patient and letting the situation develop before you go all in on Curious Obsession, but it can also bail you out when you are forced to go all in and try and draw out of a mess. It takes practice to figure out which situation you're in. It's definitely still a work in progress for me.
"To keep things 100, anything I state is an opinion and not intended to be a fact. Any and all suggestions I give are a 100% opinion. If you need further clarification take the conversation to a PM. I am not in the business of assuming things. I'm only interested in 1 business and that business serves 2 things, Cold L's and Hot Dub's."
It feels good. It's pretty easy to crank out 3-2 and 4-1 finishes with this deck but the big 5-0 takes a little luck for sure.
One additional sideboard note: in the "big tempo" slot I got good work out of both Blink of an Eye and Time of Ice. The card draw from Blink was good, and Time of Ice locking creatures down for-freaking-ever was also good. I like both of them better than Sleep unless we see a big uptick in go-super-wide strategies sweep through the meta.
Is MTGO quite a bit harder than Arena? Because I've been jamming this deck as on Arena, and I'm undefeated in multiple Competitive Constructed Leagues...
Also, is Surge just straight better than Diamond in the SB? Been running Diamond, thought it was decent, but Surge seems awesome!
"To keep things 100, anything I state is an opinion and not intended to be a fact. Any and all suggestions I give are a 100% opinion. If you need further clarification take the conversation to a PM. I am not in the business of assuming things. I'm only interested in 1 business and that business serves 2 things, Cold L's and Hot Dub's."
-Stay Frosty
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Standard maybe possibly has a viable fish deck again! Two very similar decks placed in the top ten at the SCG Standard Classic in Columbus.
4 Siren Stormtamer
4 Merfolk Trickster
4 Nightveil Sprite
4 Tempest Djinn
4 Dive Down
2 Opt
2 Chart a Course
3 Essence Scatter
4 Wizard's Retort
21 Island
1 Syncopate
3 Diamond Mare
3 Disdainful Stroke
2 Negate
3 Exclusion Mage
3 Sleep
4 Siren Stormtamer
4 Merfolk Trickster
2 Nightveil Sprite
2 Warkite Marauder
2 Exclusion Mage
4 Tempest Djinn
2 Spell Pierce
2 Chart a Course
3 Essence Scatter
4 Wizard's Retort
4 Curious Obsession
21 Island
2 Sentinel Totem
3 Syncopate
3 Diamond Mare
2 Disdainful Stroke
3 Negate
2 Sleep
One or two 5-0 lists seems to pop up every time we get a new release from WotC. I'll collect them here as I see them.
4 Siren Stormtamer
4 Merfolk Trickster
2 Nightveil Sprite
2 Warkite Marauder
4 Tempest Djinn
2 Dive Down
2 Spell Pierce
2 Chart a Course
3 Essence Scatter
4 Wizard's Retort
2 Metamorphic Alteration
21 Island
3 Syncopate
3 Diamond Mare
2 Disdainful Stroke
3 Negate
2 Exclusion Mage
2 Sleep
4 Siren Stormtamer
4 Merfolk Trickster
2 Nightveil Sprite
2 Warkite Marauder
2 Exclusion Mage
4 Tempest Djinn
2 Spell Pierce
2 Chart a Course
3 Essence Scatter
4 Wizard's Retort
4 Curious Obsession
21 Island
2 Sentinel Totem
3 Syncopate
3 Diamond Mare
2 Disdainful Stroke
3 Negate
2 Sleep
4 Siren Stormtamer
4 Merfolk Trickster
4 Exclusion Mage
4 Tempest Djinn
4 Opt
4 Spell Pierce
4 Wizard's Retort
4 Curious Obsession
4 Diamond Mare
2 Essence Scatter
2 Metamorphic Alteration
4 Negate
1 Jace, Cunning Castaway
1 Sleep
1 Time of Ice
2 Exclusion Mage
4 Merfolk Trickster
4 Mist-cloaked Herald
2 Nightveil Sprite
4 Siren Stormtamer
4 Tempest Djinn
3 Chart a Course
3 Dive Down
3 Essence Scatter
4 Spell Pierce
4 Wizard's Retort
4 Diamond Mare
3 Jace, Cunning Castaway
3 Sleep
2 Negate
3 Disdainful Stroke
4 Siren Stormtamer
4 Merfolk Trickster
2 Nightveil Sprite
2 Warkite Marauder
2 Exclusion Mage
4 Tempest Djinn
2 Spell Pierce
2 Chart a Course
3 Essence Scatter
4 Wizard's Retort
4 Curious Obsession
21 Island
2 Sentinel Totem
3 Syncopate
3 Diamond Mare
2 Disdainful Stroke
3 Negate
2 Sleep
4 Siren Stormtamer
4 Merfolk Trickster
2 Nightveil Sprite
2 Warkite Marauder
2 Exclusion Mage
4 Tempest Djinn
2 Spell Pierce
2 Chart a Course
3 Essence Scatter
4 Wizard's Retort
4 Curious Obsession
21 Island
1 Dive Down
1 Sentinel Totem
3 Syncopate
3 Diamond Mare
2 Disdainful Stroke
3 Negate
2 Sleep
3 Exclusion Mage
4 Merfolk Trickster
3 Mist-cloaked Herald
1 Nightveil Sprite
4 Siren Stormtamer
4 Tempest Djinn
2 Chart a Course
4 Dive Down
4 Spell Pierce
4 Wizard's Retort
4 Diamond Mare
1 Disdainful Stroke
1 Blink of an Eye
1 Jace, Cunning Castaway
1 Entrancing Melody
1 Selective Snare
1 Essence Scatter
2 Sleep
2 Metamorphic Alteration
1 Sentinel Totem
- Stick a Curious Obsession on a cheap creature, protect it, and snowball out of control.
- Stick a Tempest Djinn, protect it, and outrace your opponent.
In both cases, other than sticking the named card, you are deploying a plethora of resources in order to jam up your opponent's game plan just long enough to get across the finish line. It's not impossible to win with a "pure tempo" style of game sans obsession or djinn, but it is much more difficult.This is a deck that plays a lot of close games. You can roll with a nut draw(Mist-Cloaked Herald into Curious Obsession holding up Dive Down), but usually you are trying to manage the game so that you win a turn or two before your opponent would either stabilize or kill you. The deck doesn't have any removal. You are trying to counter bombs and make other creatures irrelevant. Chaining Merfolk Trickster activations can also tempo people out.
1. Creatures
The Core Four:
The heart of the deck, and the sixteen cards present in every successful iteration that I have seen, are the playsets of Siren Stormtamer, Mist-Cloaked Herald, Merfolk Trickster, and Tempest Djinn.
Siren Stormtamer is a Dive Down on a stick. Typically you use it to beat down and then eventually cash it in to save a bigger and better creature. If your hand is heavy on permission and light on other creatures it can carry a Curious Obsession in a pinch. It also has random utility in countering discard spells, burn to the dome, Risk Factor, and Settle the Wreckage.
Mist-Cloaked Herald is unblockable, which is nice. Obviously does a great job carrying Curious Obsession. Your nut draws will feature Herald, Obsession, and Dive Down. We also like the low CMC so we can hold up other interaction after playing it.
Merfolk Trickster is pretty much the only way you have to interact with resolved creatures. It can ambush a little guy (even if the little guy is evasive), buy time in a race, or clear the way by tapping a blocker. In control matchups it can also be handy to be able to flash it in after a board sweeper. Surprisingly versatile, although you may want to side him out for more specific solutions to your problems in games two and three.
Tempest Djinn is the star of the show. He wins races. He also has a nice big butt, so on the turn you cast it your opponent often can't attack. Typically you want to have some sort of protection before you play him, but if the opponent has you under a lot of pressure sometimes you just jam some Djinns and it works out. Typically when you feel like you stole a game it will involve the Djinn winning a race against a huge lineup of creatures on the other side.
Other Creatures to Consider:
Typically you will see 20 to 22 creatures in this deck. That means there are 6 flex slots. In my mind there are three real candidates here, although I'm open to suggestions:
Nightveil Sprite is a card that I like a lot. We tend to play tight games. The ability to bin useless cards (e.g. extra islands) helps a lot. Also another evasive beater for Curious Obsession.
Warkite Marauder is a more aggressive choice. It hits for one more than the sprite. It also neutralizes a blocker, which is very handy in a world where Rekindling Phoenix is standard legal. It gets better the fewer Chainwhirlers you run into. Overall it's a matchup or a meta call whether you want the Marauder to push through damage or the Sprite for card selection.
Exclusion Mage is a reactive card. It's at its best swinging races by bouncing one guy and then blocking another. It can also clear the way for your attacks and delay the reckoning involved with something like Niv-Mizzet hitting the battlefield. It doesn't attack very well and in my opinion it's more of a sideboard card. I could see fitting some number in the main deck depending on the meta.
2. Card Draw
This is a blue deck so we naturally have some choices. Typically you are going to want to devote four slots to card draw. You may want more after sideboard, though I usually find I have more pressing concerns.
The Big Two:
Chart a Course - We want to be attacking. We want to draw cards. Chart a Course is a natural fit. The only reason not to jam four and call it a day is that it is sorcery speed and costs two mana.
Opt - A lot of the time we only want one specific thing (lands, countermagic, creatures) rather than just moar cards. Opt gives you just as much of a chance of finding what you want as Chart a Course for one less mana and at instant speed. Plus, nothing tilts your opponent like Opt-ing into a counterspell while their bomb is on the stack.
Other Possibilities:
Radical Idea is just too much mana and too much time, I think. We aren't doing anything crazy that pays us off for casting multiple spells, so four mana to draw two and discard one is pretty meh. On the other hand, it is instant speed. It also gives you an excuse to break out your totally radical TMNT impression, if you put any value on that.
Discovery // Dispersal is mostly just a worse version of Chart a Course. To be fair, it does let us dig one card deeper. We're never going to cash in the back half.
Anticipate is the forgotten card selection spell in standard. Digs one card deeper than Chart a Course at instant speed. Might be worthwhile, although I haven't seen any 5-0 lists actually playing it.
Chemister's Insight is a card that will make you very sad as your control opponent uses it to pull away. Unfortunately we just can't swing the mana cost. Maaaaybe out of the sideboard in slow matchups, but I'm skeptical.
3. Countermagic
Again, we're playing blue, we have options. Standard has a diverse set of counterspells available at the moment.
Dive Down is amazing right now. Standard is awash with targeted removal, and Dive Down trades up on mana with all of them. It even saves your Curious Obsession carriers from Deafening Clarion. I think this is a four of for the foreseeable future and I very rarely board it out.
Spell Pierce is hit or miss. Recently I've been running into a lot of four and five mana bombs that line up nicely for it. Hitting a Teferi with a Spell Pierce using your one open island is the best feeling you can have at a magic tournament without doing something that will get you kicked out of the facilities. Loses some utility in the late game, although it's usually still relevant if a counter war starts up. Also loses utility when the opponent starts playing around it, although them playing around it can be its own reward.
Wizard's Retort counters whatever you want. No muss, no fuss. Half the time we're getting to play it like a genuine Counterspell, which is pretty sweet. This one seems to be a 4 of in every list.
Essence Scatter is live against most decks. I can certainly see the argument for maindecking a few of them. Especially since mono-blue is naturally poor at removal. Hitting Ravenous Chupacabra, Golgari Findbroker, or Lyra Dawnbringer feels good. It does hurt when you go to the trouble to keep two mana open and the opponent drops a planeswalker, though.
Negate is probably a sideboard card. It wouldn't be totally insane to maindeck one or two but there are good decks out there that will run you over without really caring about their non-creature spells being countered.
Disdainful Stroke is interesting. It hits an awful lot of stuff (Vraska's Contempt or Chupacabra or most planeswalkers). It also misses on some important cards (Plaguecrafter, Jadelight Ranger, Deafening Clarion). Again, not totally crazy to maindeck a couple but a more natural fit in the sideboard.
Sinister Sabotage is probably too rich for our blood. We aren't getting any special value out of the surveil and the four retorts are already a lot of unconditional counters. Maybe pack one or two in the side if you want to really load up for control matches (or if you want to save space compared to stocking Negate, Essence Scatter, and Disdainful Stroke in the side).
Syncopate hits everything and works great against somebody who's curving out. It even exiles pesky jump start cards. I wouldn't go too heavy on it since we usually wind up falling behind in land count compared to our opponents but depending on your preferences you might want one or two in the 75.
4.
RemovalOther InteractionWell, we're mono blue, so removing creatures isn't really our bag. That said, we do have a few options available to mess with stuff on the battlefield juuuuust enough to get us through to the end of the game. Sometimes. These cards are narrow and underpowered enough that their natural home is the sideboard.
Unsummon is the classic blue "removal" spell. Typically a signature card of the blue tempo genre, it isn't showing up in the 5-0 lists. You do get the same effect from Exclusion Mage, though.Explorers of Ixalan, unlike Rivals of Ixalan, is not a standard legal set. Unsummon is therefore not standard legal, explaining why it isn't showing up in successful standard lists.
Blink of an Eye is Unsummon's big brother. Bouncing a card and drawing a card for four mana is basically Cryptic Command, right? Compared to Unsummon we have the ever present mana cost worry but in exchange we get a lot more versatility.
Metamorphic Alteration can make Niv-Mizzet, Parun into a more manageable creature or, if you're feeling cheeky, roll your own Niv-Mizzet. Personally I've found it a little inconsistent but two mana to deal with (kind of) your opponent's biggest creature is a good rate.
Deep Freeze is basically Thopter Arrest. Pay no attention to that wall that's left behind. Three mana at sorcery speed can be a pain in the neck to come up with, but it does take out stuff like Rekindling Phoenix and Niv-Mizzet.
Time of Ice swings races quite a bit. The first guy that you hit will miss three full block/attack combat cycles, while the second guy will miss two. Also has some nice synergy with Merfolk Trickster. The final bonus is that the last bounce happens without any mana investment, so you have a good chance to counter everything on the way back down.
Sleep is another race-swinging card. More dramatic than Time of Ice but not as long lasting. Also doesn't make the opponent waste time recasting anything. Fantastic on a board stall.
5. Special Mention
The straw that stirs the drink. The gas in our motor. The spring in our step. The source of our je ne sais quoi.
Curious Obsession lets us run away with games if it goes unchecked. In general you want to prioritize getting this out securely over getting it out quickly. The more creatures your opponent kills before you dig in and protect your Obsession bearer, the more value you're likely to get out of it. Ultimately you will win more games with Tempest Djinn but the Obsession is often what makes those wins possible.
6. Islands
Tempest Djinn is pretty sad without 'em. You're going to want 20 or 21, depending on whether your card draw and counter flex spots lean more towards one mana spells or two mana spells.
I personally like Revised islands for the classic art and convenient white border, but reasonable people can differ.
7. Sideboard
Typically you will want to use the sideboard to tune your counter suite and to bring in some race-swinging cards as discussed above. You also will probably want some dedicated anti-aggro slots, since we are a smidge vulnerable to getting rushed out of the game if our draw isn't the best.
Anti-aggro tech:
Diamond Mare looks like it should be good against aggro. In my experience it's mediocre at best. It can't block the big threats (Chainwhirler, Steam-kin, Branchwalker, Jadelight, etc). We only cast blue spells but we don't cast that many in the abbreviated rush of an aggro race. It can trade with Lightning Mare, if that's something you're seeing a lot of.
Surge Mare on the other hand, is the real deal. An 0/5 wall is just what the doctor ordered in the early game, and it even threatens to attack late. I also like it against control decks that lean on red removal since the big butt makes it so hard to kill. In that situation it is also a fantastic Curious Obsession carrier. I also bring in a couple against Golgari for Sprites since it blocks all of their guys, sometimes randomly has evasion, and doesn't get shot down by that green reach fight dude.
Sample Sideboards:
3 Diamond Mare
3 Disdainful Stroke
2 Negate
3 Exclusion Mage
3 Sleep
3 Syncopate
3 Diamond Mare
2 Disdainful Stroke
3 Negate
2 Sleep
2 Negate
2 Essence Scatter
2 Blink of an Eye
2 Exclusion Mage
1 Time of Ice
4 Surge Mare
Some general notes to begin with below.
Tempest Djinn math: 4 + 5 + 6 = 15. 5 + 6 + 7 = 18. In other words, scraping together 2-5 points of damage from your non-Djinn cards can shorten the clock presented by the Djinn by a full turn.
Know your opponent: This deck rewards you for knowing your opponent. This allows you to, for example, make the right decision about when to use Spell Pierce and when to use Dive Down. It's also important to know when you can get away with jamming a Djinn sans protection and when you have to try anyways. You really have to know what your opponent is trying to do so that you can mess it up. This deck has a few obvious plays but usually it presents you with a lot of options as early as turn two.
Know your opponent(2): Standard has more (relatively) cheap uncounterable spells running around than usual. Banefire, Niv-Mizzet, Parun, and Carnage Tyrant. All cards you should be aware of. When you're running away with a game and you have to decide whether to develop the board or hold up maximum counter-magic, keep these cards in mind. It really hurts to die to a Niv-Mizzet while you stare at the two counterspells in your hand because you took your foot off the gas too soon.
Sideboarding: the specific suggestions are based around my preferred list that is at the end of the primer. The general principles of what counters are good in what matchups and when you need to bring in your bounce/tempo stuff should hold even if your sideboard differs in the particulars.
Golgari Grind
This is not a deck that you are going to exhaust of resources unless they have a terrible draw. The way you beat them, especially in game one, is by outracing them in the air. Typically this involves resolving a Tempest Djinn and protecting it. Getting Curious Obsession going is nice, but mostly because it gets you towards dropping the Djinn with Dive Down or Stormtamer up. Drawing two cards a turn by itself isn't enough against their steady stream of 2 for 1s. Merfolk Trickster does good tempo work tapping Jadelight Rangers and trading for their x/2s.
Golgari runs a lot of juicy Spell Pierce targets (both Vraskas, Vraska's Contempt, The Eldest Reborn) but the playset of Chupacabra can jam you up through a pierce.
Sideboard: -2 Opt, -2 Spell Pierce, -2 Nightveil Sprite; +2 Disdainful Stroke, +2 Essence Scatter, +2 Surge Mare
Disdainful Stroke is great against a deck with so many 4+ mana bombs. Essence Scatter has a ton of targets as well. Surge Mare acting as a wall is surprisingly good in a race and, unlike Nightveil Sprite, it doesn't get eaten by Kraul Harpooner. Their noncreature spells are all so expensive that Spell Pierce is basically a cheaper Negate.
I've had good success against this deck overall, but every game win has been close while many of the games lost have been utter stomps. The Golgari deck is powerful. It can be beaten, but you need to be on your game.
Red Aggro
The name of the game is Don't Die. Don't be shy about trading your 1/1s for Fanatical Firebrand or Viashino Pyromancer. On a related point, try not to overextend to the point of getting blown out by Goblin Chainwhirler. Fire off your Spell Pierce any time you have a chance to counter something, since the card gets real dead real fast. Don't forget that Stormtamer can counter Risk Factor.
Sometimes you can get them with a Trickster ambush--don't forget that Trickster drops the Lavarunner back to 1/2 status. Tempest Djinn does good work here, if you and the Djinn both live long enough for it to matter. If you have luxury to do it, try to keep a Wizard's Retort ready for their four mana haymakers. Hazoret is gone, but Rekindling Phoenix and Experimental Frenzy are still scary at four.
Game one is an uphill battle. You really want to be on the play and you can still get run over if their hand is good enough.
Sideboard: -4 Spell Pierce, -2 Opt, -1 Wizard's Retort, -2 Mist-Cloaked Herald, +2 Exclusion Mage, +4 Surge Mare, +1 Time of Ice, +2 Essence Scatter
It's possible you don't want the Essence Scatter, but I like to hedge a little bit against Chainwhirler and Rekindling Phoenix. Surge Mare is a great blocker in this matchup. Any kind of bounce is also quite good against Runaway Steam-Kin.
Boros Aggro
To be added.
Selesneya Tokens
To be added.
Esper Control
Be patient. Be patient. Seriously, be patient.
This is a pretty good matchup. You can make it a bad matchup, however, if you overextend into a Ritual of Soot or make it easy for your opponent to resolve a Teferi.
This is a matchup where an unchecked Curious Obsession will most likely win the game. If you have multiple creatures it's not a bad idea to let the first one or two die so you have a better chance to keep the last one alive for multiple turns. Also, these games usually go long enough that an unchecked Nightveil Sprite makes a big impact even without an obsession attached.
Chip in for a point or two of damage per turn, keep a counter in reserve for Teferi, and you should be ok.
Sideboard: -2 Opt, -2 Merfolk Trickster, +2 Negate, +2 Disdainful Stroke
Trickster flashing in is neat and all, but with no targets available to tap it's not that impressive. Obviously you want to load up on counterspells for this matchup. It's possible you even want to drop the remaining tricksters for Surge Mare just for the loot, although the constant mana cost is a bummer.
Jeskai Control
To be added.
Izzet Spells / Control
To be added.
Dimir Control
To be added.
The deck has a bit of reputation online as the budget competitive deck. While it's true that the deck is cheap--the whole thing costs less than a single Teferi -- none of the cards were chosen for budget reasons. Tempest Djinn wouldn't become better if it were a chase mythic. Maybe the deck's record suffers because inexperienced players gravitate towards it for budget reasons, but that's not a problem with the deck itself. Good pilots have been putting up good results with it week in, week out.
Time will tell if the deck has staying power as the meta develops, but don't dismiss it just because it's cheap.
--
On a personal note, my current list looks like this:
4 Mist-cloaked Herald
4 Siren Stormtamer
4 Nightveil Sprite
4 Merfolk Trickster
4 Tempest Djinn
4 Opt
4 Dive Down
4 Spell Pierce
4 Wizard's Retort
4 Surge Mare
2 Negate
2 Essence Scatter
2 Disdainful Stroke
2 Blink of an Eye
2 Exclusion Mage
1 Time of Ice
The deck is a lot of fun to play. Take it, tweak it to suit your own tastes, and try it out! I think you'll be happy you did.
Also would a pure flyers deck work as an alternative or would it get too far away from the tempo based approach of the deck?
-Stay Frosty
If somebody wants to move this to Proven I'd be ok with it, but it needs to show a little more staying power before I'd really agitate for it. The deck might get hated out in the next couple weeks. At first glance it struggles a little with very aggressive decks because it doesn't really have a great way to catch up once it gets behind on board.
You definitely have the creatures available to make a Favorable Winds deck in this standard. I think it's more of a cousin to this deck than a variant (ditto with UG merfolk). With Favorable Winds you're looking to curve out and overwhelm the opponent with synergies while maybe countering one spell. With the tempo deck you're looking to ride one or two threats most of the way and counter your opponent's bombs and removal.
On a separate note, one anti-aggro option available for the sideboard is Surge Mare. Blocks Thrashing Brontodon and combos well with Metamorphic Alteration, if nothing else.
On the other hand, it's kind of embarrassing to run a deck in this day and age that has an 0/5 wall as its best response to resolved creatures. I'm tempted to slide into Dimir. Swap out Tempest Djinn for Thief of Sanity and play some real removal. Nightveil Predator seems like a nice fit with Curious Obsession. You could go big with Doom Whisperer and/or fit in a more controlling package with Disinformation Campaign and Thought Erasure.
Maybe something like:
6 Island
4 Watery Grave
4 Drowned Catacomb
2 Dimir Guildgate
4 Mist-Cloaked Herald
4 Siren Stormtamer
4 Nightveil Sprite
4 Thief of Sanity
4 Nightveil Predator
2 Spell Pierce
2 Dive Down
2 Dead Weight
2 Cast Down
2 Vraska's Contempt
2 Thought Erasure
2 Disinformation Campaign
2 Disdainful Stroke
2 Negate
1 Sinister Sabotage
2 Cast Down
2 Vraska's Contempt
2 Thought Erasure
2 Disinformation Campaign
2 Chemister's Insight
I don't know. I've won games on the strength of Tempest Djinn, but I've also lost games because of a lack of removal. It feels like there ought to be a good Dimir tempo deck in the format somewhere.
Pioneer: WURFaerie fires BRGDragons
ModernBGElves WRBurn UR Fires Turns URGift Storm UG Twiddle Storm
Also what about Etrata, the silencer. It's a nasty card that can't be blocked.
-Stay Frosty
For me once you go UB the natural thing is to go higher up on the curve and play tap out control. The problem I kept running into is that the removal in the format is so good that everybody is prepared to kill all your stuff. So then you might as well go even higher up the curve, drop the cheap creatures and Curious Obsessions, and just do Doom Whisperer control.
The advantage of the mono blue shell is that once you get a good creature carrying Curious Obsession or a Tempest Djinn then you can pass every turn with mana up, counter anything that turns the tide, and close the game out quickly. Trying to out-grind the Golgari decks is really tough but in my experience out tempo-ing them is pretty doable.
Surge Mare continues to be awesome. I like it against any aggro and any deck leaning heavily on red removal. The fish horse laughs off Deafening Clarion and can even swing in for four in the late game.
My current anti-aggro experimental card is Time of Ice. Haven't drawn it yet in real play but it seems like it should be good.
We also have a third 5-0 list with some changes from both of the lists in the original post:
4 Siren Stormtamer
4 Merfolk Trickster
4 Exclusion Mage
4 Tempest Djinn
4 Opt
4 Spell Pierce
4 Wizard's Retort
4 Curious Obsession
4 Diamond Mare
2 Essence Scatter
2 Metamorphic Alteration
4 Negate
1 Jace, Cunning Castaway
1 Sleep
1 Time of Ice
I have to say, I love the mathematical clarity here. Twenty lands, twenty creatures, twenty spells. Everything a four of. This is a deck that knows what it wants to do.
The land count seems aggressive. The deck has an average CMC of 1.7 (1.6 if you count Wizard's Retort as a 2), which ordinarily would suggest 21 lands. Usually CMC of 1.12-1.44 is 20 lands, 1.44-1.76 is 21, and 1.76-2.08 is 20. The playset of Opts might change the math a bit, I don't know.
The full playset of main deck Exclusion Mage seems geared towards the aggro matchup. It also gives the deck four more ways to clear blockers out of the way once they've hit the battlefield. This is particularly important because of the other big change...
Four main deck Spell Pierce and no Essence Scatter! Now I like Spell Pierce as much as the next guy (as long as Waterd isn't the next guy), but four is a lot. The only way this deck can put opposing creatures in the bin is with Wizard's Retort. I guess the idea is to tap or bounce as needed. There is some nice symmetry in the full playset of Opts that come along with the Spell Pierces to make use of that open mana.
It's a really interesting list and I think it goes to show that there is still tinkering to be done within the archetype.
Deck is super low to the ground.
I agree with Spell-pierce be main-decked for 4. As rough as a call it can be ultimately it is as good as you can do in the early game. For all we know he might be doubling up with these.
Sideboard is interesting call as well at 4 Negate. Also note that Disdainful stroke was pulled as well.
-Stay Frosty
I tried this out in a friendly league and got absolutely trucked 4 times in a row. When this version runs hot it's amazing (Herald -> Obsession -> Protection -> Djinn -> Exclusion) but I found it really inconsistent. The only card selection is the opts.
Nightveil Sprite is great at carrying Curious Obsession into the red zone if you can protect it. Exclusion Mage isn't. Sure, if you already have your Herald doing work then you'd rather draw the Mage, but it really hurts the consistency when you only have twelve evasive creatures in the deck.
We also get a lot of mileage out of the surveil. We really want to get to land 4 or 5 but we really don't want to draw any land after that. We aren't running bombs where we can just kind of draw like crap forever and then oops-we-win. We need the right mix of cards at the right time. I really like how the Sprite can smooth out your draws. It also makes it a bit less painful to play stuff like Spell Pierce that's dead late when we can sometimes just surveil it away.
Maybe I was playing it wrong and this version needs more aggressive mulligans or something. It must be doing something right to get the 5-0.
I have deck like this for funzies from the last standard and i will update it a.s.a.p.
Modern: WUBRG Humans - GBW Traverse - GWU Knightfall - GRW
I like the Nightveil Sprite a lot as an early play that starts tilting the game in our favor if it lives. It also makes the creature curve look more like a 20 land deck. My current list if anybody wants to try it out:
4 Mist-cloaked Herald
4 Siren Stormtamer
4 Nightveil Sprite
4 Merfolk Trickster
4 Tempest Djinn
4 Opt
4 Dive Down
4 Spell Pierce
4 Wizard's Retort
4 Surge Mare
2 Negate
2 Essence Scatter
2 Disdainful Stroke
2 Blink of an Eye
3 Exclusion Mage
Main deck Spell Pierce is better than I thought right now. Everybody is playing big spells (Vraska's Contempt, Vraska 4 and Vraska 6, The Eldest Reborn, Teferi, Ral, Experimental Frenzy) except maybe Boros Aggro, and even there you can snipe History of Benalia sometimes.
Mainly curious about the sideboard. I can see Exclusion Mage or Blink of an Eye but not necessarily both even though the latter does give card advantage.
Overall, I think the deck is pretty well tuned even though it's early in the meta.
-Stay Frosty
I'm just indecisive on the bounce effect of choice between Time of Ice, Exclusion Mage, and Blink of an Eye. Time of Ice is probably a little better against aggro and gives you three turns of not worrying about the first blocker you tap, but it's not so hot against Niv-Mizzet. I figured with 20 lands the 4 mana was a little ambitious.
I find the heavy Izzet decks to be a tough matchup. Infinite cheap red removal plus drakes into Niv-Mizzet is rough. Really makes me miss Commit. I'm tempted to try to wedge in some Deep Freeze action or something.
As far as the izzet decks that probably justifies needing Diamond Mare since it gives us lifegain against those decks.
-Stay Frosty
I'm more worried about running out of gas against Izzet than getting raced out. Surge Mare is nice because it's tough for them to kill and it has a real chance to get in and loot. Diamond Mare seems very meh for that matchup.
The plan with Carnage Tyrant is to race it. It is sad when a Golgari deck manages to grind away until they drop the Tyrant on an empty board, but I think at that point you just have to tip your hat to them and move on. Hopefully we'll pick up a Commit or Venser type effect at some point.
I updated the initial post to look more like a proper primer. Now I'm crossing my fingers and hoping the deck puts up enough results to justify the effort.
19 Island
Creatures (20)
2 Exclusion Mage
4 Merfolk Trickster
4 Mist-cloaked Herald
2 Nightveil Sprite
4 Siren Stormtamer
4 Tempest Djinn
4 Curious Obsession
3 Chart a Course
3 Dive Down
3 Essence Scatter
4 Spell Pierce
4 Wizard's Retort
4 Diamond Mare
3 Jace, Cunning Castaway
3 Sleep
2 Negate
3 Disdainful Stroke
Think there is a case to be made for Jace, Cunning Castaway
Also note 19 lands which is lower than the other 3.
-Stay Frosty
I'm running the list with 4x Nightveil Sprite and loving it. Surveil every turn fix your draws incredibly well and some degree of library manipulation is needed because the deck relies so much in drawing a good balance of lands, creatures and non-creature spells.
BGU Control
R Aggro
Standard - For Fun
BG Auras
Exclusion Mage at best best is ran of as a 2 of in the main deck. Preferably as a 2/2 split with nightveil Sprite. It does the job it needs to due and really that decision is dependent upon your meta.
As far as Essence Scatter. Some ppl like Essence Scatter some like Spell Pierce. Some people like apples and some like oranges.
-Stay Frosty
19 lands seems kind of crazy to me, especially if you want to bring in three and four drops out of the sideboard. Still, 6-3 in the online PTQ is a solid result. I'll add it to the original post.
What matchups do you want Jace for? He doesn't do that much. I think he gets consideration because the non-Djinn three drops in standard are so weak at the moment.
I think going up to 22 creatures and fitting two Exclusion Mage in there can make sense. I'm a little surprised to see so few Unsummon or Blink of an Eye running around, but I guess the 2/2 body is a relevant blocker in most matchups.
I agree that we want four flying two drops and I share your love for the sprite. Getting a surveil every turn is huge for us. I wouldn't go to the marauder unless I started seeing a lot more flying blockers running around.
Essence Scatter vs Spell Pierce is a meta call, I think. I will note that there are decks where Essence Scatter is just dead, while Spell Pierce usually has at least one or two available targets. Also that one is less than two. OTOH Essence Scatter is the only blue card designed to put a creature in the graveyard, which can be a nice effect to have available. Remember that either Essence Scatter or Spell Pierce is the third "counterspell" added to the deck after Wizard's Retort and Dive Down.
The deck:
4 Mist-cloaked Herald
4 Siren Stormtamer
4 Nightveil Sprite
4 Merfolk Trickster
4 Tempest Djinn
4 Opt
4 Dive Down
4 Spell Pierce
4 Wizard's Retort
4 Surge Mare
2 Negate
2 Essence Scatter
2 Disdainful Stroke
2 Blink of an Eye
2 Exclusion Mage
1 Time of Ice
Round 1: Jeskai Control (2-0)
Game one
My seven card hand is amazing: 2 island, herald, stormtamer, trickster, djinn, spell pierce.
I play stormtamer into herald. My opponent plays steam vents, then accidentally clicks through his turn two and discards field of ruin. My draws are island into djinn so I go ahead and jam a djinn on three. He scoops without casting a spell.
Sideboarding: -2 Spell Pierce, -2 Opt, -2 Trickster, +2 Exclusion Mage, +2 Negate, +2 Surge Mare
Game two
I mulligan a one lander and keep a six of 2 island, 2 stormtamer, trickster, dive down.
First couple turns I play stormtamer into (drawn) herald, while opponent plays search for azcanta. Turn three I attack and pass and he EOT justice strikes stormtamer. He passes turn four and I flash in trickster EOT.
I draw curious obsession with spell pierce and dive down in hand, but he has four open mana, so I just attack. He justice strikes Trickster once it hits the red zone. I play stormtamer into an essence scatter and pass. Opponent plays crackling drake (3/4) and passes.
Curious obsession goes on the Herald and it starts doing work. Opponent plays Teferi with one mana up and it gets pierced. I draw a second obsession and put it on the herald. Herald keeps slamming in while I draw more and more protection and opponent never draws anything that can deal with it.
Round 2: Grixis Control (2-0)
Game one
I mull a no lander into a strong one lander: island, pierce, stormtamer, obsession, trickster, djinn. I scry an island to the top.
Stormtamer gets shocked. I flash in Trickster on the end of his third turn. After I draw my hand is: pierce, obsession, djinn, opt, dive down. I jam the obsession and go for it. Opponent has no plays so I get to draw a stormtamer.
Next turn he casts discovery into a land. I rip another obsession and play it. I also peel an island. He taps out for Eldest Reborn into my spell pierce. Turn six Niv-Mizzet gets Trickstered and that's the game.
Sideboard: -2 Pierce -2 Opt -2 Trickster +2 Negate +2 Disdainful Stroke +2 Exclusion Mage
Game two
I keep a meh seven: 2 island, pierce, retort, retort, exclusion mage, sprite
Turn one I draw an island and then spell pierce his turn two search for azcanta, which is nice. My nightveil sprite eats a lava coil. I go ahead and jam a turn three djinn, since it isn't getting better any time soon. He passes, so the djinn starts doing work. My hand is exclusion mage, herald, 2x retort, disdainful stroke.
I get two hits in with the djinn and play the herald leaving three islands up. He has fight with fire backed with ionize to kill the djinn. Herald knocks him to 12 and I pass. He plays Niv Mizzet. I draw and play an exclusion mage and stormtamer and hit him to 11. He plays niv mizzet. I play exclusion mage and herald and hit him to 7. He plays Chemister's insight and scoops.
I'm pretty sure he could have won if he had just jammed Niv-Mizzet one more time. I was out of bounces. He would have eaten a mage and gone to 2. Once he untapped with Niv-Mizzet he would have wiped my board. I guess he put me on infinite bounce or something. I'll take it and go to 2-0.
Round 3: Izzet Dracophoenix (2-1)
Game one
I mull a no lander and keep a decent one land six: island, pierce, dive down, opt, stormtamer, sprite. I scry a sprite to the bottom. Turn one I play opt on his EOT and ship a herald to the bottom, drawing Wizard's Retort.
I draw islands the next two turns and play Stormtamer into Sprite. I did not spell pierce his naked chart a course, which let him dump a phoenix in the graveyard.
The sprite reveals a curious obsession, which I keep on top. I pierce his next chart a course. Obsession goes on the sprite, revealing a djinn, which I keep. He shocks stormtamer, lava coils Sprite into Dive Down, and casts a Radical Idea that I spell pierce. Phoenix comes back and plays defense. I opt into a trickster and swing again.
He plays running Crackling Drakes and gets back another phoenix. It's too much flying value and I go down.
Sideboard: -2 Trickster -3 Sprite -2 Opt +2 Blink +2 Surge Mare +2 Essence Scatter +1 Time of Ice
Game two
I keep seven: 3 island, sprite, spell pierce, blink of an eye, obsession
I jam a turn two sprite, which unexpectedly survives. Opponent taps out for discovery, so I go ahead and jam obsession. Surveil reveals dive down, which I keep while casting Herald.
At the end of turn 4 my hand is stacked: Retort, 2x dive down, pierce, blink of an eye, essence scatter. I counter literally every spell my opponent casts that affects the board while the Sprite takes me to value town and then the winner's circle.
Game three
I keep a slightly speculative seven: 3 island, obsession, blink, pierce, exclusion mage.
I'm immediately rewarded by drawing Tempest Djinn into Stormtamer while opponent cantrips away. I play Stormtamer and pierce the shock attempt. Opponent untaps and Lava Coils it, so I go ahead and jam the Djinn. He has the second Lava Coil, unfortunately.
Turn 5 I draw and play Stormtamer. Opponent shocks it, I pierce it. He untaps and plays shock on stormtamer, Chart a Course, and jump starts a radical idea to get his phoenix down.
I untap and exclusion mage the phoenix. He spends his turn fiery cannonade-ing the mage. My hand at this point is Blink, Time of Ice, Curious Obsession.
I draw Essence Scatter and pass. He plays the Phoenix, I kick a blink of an eye. I draw and play stormtamer. He plays phoenix again and holds it back to block. I Time of Ice it and play my topdecked Mist-Cloaked Herald.
He plays Crackling Drake and passes. Time of Ice taps it down and I suit up the Herald before sending the team. I draw and play a second Curious Obsession on the Herald. Hand as I pass back is Essence Scatter and Wizard's Retort.
My thinking is that with three lands up I can protect my Herald from two spells and I am going to want maximum mana open after Time of Ice ultimates. As it happens he has a fight with fire, which I retort. When I pass back after the big bounce I have two essence scatters, obsession, and Trickster in hand.
Opponent scoops after I scatter both his guys.
Round 4: Jeskai Control (2-0)
Game one
I keep what could be a stacked seven: 3 island, 2 obsession, stormtamer, dive down.
I play turn one stormtamer and play it safe as I draw a bunch of islands to start off. Opponent develops his mana and casts no spells for four turns.
Turn four I draw and play nightveil sprite. Opponent casts Chemister's Insight, then untaps and jams Teferi into two open mana. He gets paid off as I have no counter for it.
I decide it's YOLO time and double obsession the sprite. Sprite goes at opponent, stormtamer at Teferi. Surveil reveals a Retort, which I keep. Opponent plays deafening clarion, which I let go. He tries to tuck the sprite and I dive it down.
The sprite finishes off Teferi and I play a stormtamer. I have the Retort for his next Teferi, drop a third obsession on the sprite, and that's that.
Sideboard: -2 Opt, -2 Sprite, -2 Trickster, +2 Disdainful Stroke, +2 Surge Mare, +2 Blink of an Eye.
Game two
I keep a decent seven: four islands, retort, pierce, djinn.
I draw a herald and go ahead and leave my island up. Sure enough, opponent jams Search into my Spell Pierce. Feels good.
I play herald the next turn and start the beats. Opponent keeps his mana open, so I hold the Djinn for now. I do draw and play stormtamer turn four. I retort his deafening clarion and jam djinn, then retort his next clarion. Beatdown team gets in, I Stormtamer his Teferi tuck attempt and kill Teferi as I knock him to three. He gets the Seal Away but my surviving Heralds knock him to 1.
He has Lyra and a lightning strike but it's not enough as the Herald gets through for exactsies.
Round 5: Golgari Grind (2-1)
I keep a shaky seven: four islands, retort, two stormtamers.
Opponent plays Branchwalker into District Guide while I draw island into djinn. I retort his turn four Jadelight Ranger, drop the Djinn, and I'm feeling pretty good about myself.
Then he plays Doom Whisperer.
I get lucky with the topdecks and decide to force the action: Curious Obsession onto Djinn, attack to force a block, Dive Down to kill his guy. Unfortunately he surveils into another Doom Whisperer.
A trickster off the top would let me steal the game. It's a Wizard's Retort instead.
Sideboard: -2 Sprite, -2 Opt, -2 Pierce, -1 Trickster, +2 Disdainful Stroke, +2 Essence Scatter, +2 Exclusion Mage, +1 Time of Ice.
Game two
My opening seven looks good: 2 island, 2 stormtamer, 2 djinn, 1 retort
I draw running islands off the top and jam a djinn on turn 4 with 1 mana up. Chupacabra gets stormtamered, I knock him to 9 and play another djinn, passing with two mana up.
Vraska's Contempt gets stormtamered and that's that.
Running Djinns present a crazy fast clock.
Sideboard tweak: -1 sprite, -1 trickster, +2 surge mare
Game three
My seven is ok: 3 island, herald, stormtamer, retort, dive down
I lead on herald into stormtamer opting into trickster. Opponent plays Wildgrowth Walker into Branchwalker. Branchwalker reveals a Chupacabra, which he keeps.
My turn three I swing and pass. His turn four the same. He appears content to trade five for two instead of running Chupacabra into open mana.
On his turn five trickster taps wildgrowth walker and then trades with branchwalker. My turn five I swing and run out herald. He contempts it and I let it go (hand is retort, dive down, disdainful stroke).
I retort the Branchwalker he tries to play next turn, swing for 2 (life total is 18 him 11 me), and play Surge Mare. Disdainful Stroke picks off Chupacabra.
Next turn I pump the Mare and swing for four, looting away an island for a Trickster. He plays little Vraska. Dive Down counters her kill attempt.
Next turn I pump the Mare twice and kill Vraska while knocking him down to 7, looting away another island for a Tempest Djinn.
Opponent untaps into Doom Whisperer. I draw an Obsession and drop it on the Herald, swing for two, and play Djinn (life is now 5 for him to 7 for me).
Opponent plays Vivien Reed, stormtamer eats her activation, trickster taps Doom Whisperer, and that's that.
Overall thoughts:
Hitting a turn 2 Search for Azcanta with a Spell Pierce when I'm on the draw is just about as fun as piercing Teferi.
You don't get a 5-0 without some good fortune. I never hit a terrible matchup and I never had to mull to five.
That said, part of the reason I didn't have to mull to five is that the deck is capable of winning off a six card one land hand. And part of the reason I didn't see a bad matchup is that the bad matchups are not a big part of the metagame.
What this really emphasized for me is the importance of developing a sense of timing. This deck usually rewards you for being a little patient and letting the situation develop before you go all in on Curious Obsession, but it can also bail you out when you are forced to go all in and try and draw out of a mess. It takes practice to figure out which situation you're in. It's definitely still a work in progress for me.
-Stay Frosty
It feels good. It's pretty easy to crank out 3-2 and 4-1 finishes with this deck but the big 5-0 takes a little luck for sure.
One additional sideboard note: in the "big tempo" slot I got good work out of both Blink of an Eye and Time of Ice. The card draw from Blink was good, and Time of Ice locking creatures down for-freaking-ever was also good. I like both of them better than Sleep unless we see a big uptick in go-super-wide strategies sweep through the meta.
Also, is Surge just straight better than Diamond in the SB? Been running Diamond, thought it was decent, but Surge seems awesome!
-Stay Frosty