Some observations I know are going to be questioned right away:
12 Temples: Some amazing card filter has made the deck really consistent. I have 6 untapped lands and I only need to hit them on turns 3 or 5. Happens more than you would imagine. This set up also gives me 18 Red/Black/White sources.
"Spells" could just be labeled removal: That's how the deck works, it keeps the board clean so your walkers have a nice place to sit while you win. Control never has enough counter to stop me from killing their toys, and nothing else can make enough threats... Maybe Sidisi in game 1.
Anger + Bile + Drown: I don't like the variance in aggro games, so I punish them. Usually still have tons of removal by the time they run out of cards.
2 Resolute Archangel: I find myself in burn range against the usual suspects, so I find 2 of them are better than 1. I never cast both in a game, usually seeing the first and understanding my deck forces my opponent to scoop.
Does 8 threats work? Yes. It's not often I run out, but it has happened.
Mardu Charm: Instant speed Duress beats Control all day! End of draw step check for counters, remove counters, drop threat. Double block that Rabblemaster and have chumps left over! Burn that Courser/Anafenza/Wingmate/Fleecemane! My sideboard all star.
With FRF moving in soon I've put some thought toward what I'd like to change about the deck. Not much has presented itself. I don't like Crux of Fate, I don't know how many dragons are going to show up apart from my own and End Hostilities is still a thing. Citadel Siege Dragons mode seems good, forces them to extend into an obvious wrath, but feels like an unlikely pick up. Valorous Stance actually looked good for a few seconds until I remembered that Storbreath is pro-white so I can't give it Indestructible. Ugin, the Spirit Dragon is a super late sweeper that comes with an up side, might be a thing? I like Merciless Executioner, but I'm not sure it's function is important enough to warrant slots. I recently had Dead Drop suggested, haven't tested it yet. Silence the Believers looks decent, but doesn't really add anything I'm in dire need of. Perilous Vault is slow, but I love the effect.
Many people are saying the format will speed up with FRF in tow, my deck is not super cool with that. Obviously I already know what I'm doing against them, but I was hoping anyone had suggestions of additions or just changes in general. The shop I play at is really competitive, I rarely see the rouge deck and many go to PTQs. *snapshot of meta*
Ashiok wrecks me. No idea why; hardly any creatures to take, doesn't do damage, doesn't keep threats alive. But I rarely win a game when I see one. Maybe it's just bad luck? Maybe it's actually the deck it's in and I can't see why?
As a joke one week I ran mainboard -1 Read the Bones, -2 Bloodfell Caves, +1 Garruk, +2 Mana Confluence. Was not actually that bad, caught the few who saw it totally by surprise and won me the three games he showed up. Probably wouldn't do it more, but it was a fun experiment.
Keep a hand with 3 lands, if 2 of those lands are pain lands then mulligan.
If you have no removal, mulligan.
If you have 3 threats, mulligan.
Kill everything.
Sometimes Sarkhan and Elspeth are removal.
Sometimes Liliana uses her -8.
You have 8 credible threats in the deck, 5 of them can be used as removal and the other 3 aren't hard to remove since Murderous Cut is all kinds of popular; be careful.
If you are going to use a walker's final skill, make sure it lives (few threats).
Went 3-1-1 last night at FNM. My only loss was to a very interesting Creatureless Manifest deck.
Round 1 vs Stock Abzan Midrange. Both games went relatively quick, but both decks are pretty straight forward. I exhausted his threats pretty easily, then lost a few walkers to removal and stuck one to win. Basically how both games went. Brought in Mardu Charms to hunt for removal before I started being offensive, worked pretty well. Garruk closed both games this round. 2-0
1-0
Round 2 vs I forget. I went 2-0 pretty handily though.
2-0
Round 3 vs Creatureless Manifest. The deck was playing UW with a driving engine of Ephara, God of the Polis and Mastery of the Unseen. He ran a ton of counters, general removal, draw spells (Dig not Cruise). Anyway, he is essentially playing Flash Bears because they can't flip up (except Ephara). Apart from nearly decking himself he had infinite 2/2s with Flash. With a finite amount of removal, he didn't have to worry about too much I did. Was just a very awkward match for me. Easily lost 0-2 to an odd deck; I'm pretty sure he was 4-1 or better, was a smart player to boot.
2-1
Round 4 vs Ali Aintrazi's Sultai ramp without any counters. I recognized the list pretty quick, just started keeping tally of how many threats I killed until I was in the clear. I assumed for awhile he had some counters until I dropped my first Elspeth; he looked at it, looked at his hand, then said it resolved. Guy had thrown 2 Digs by then, really should know he doesn't even run counters if he is through that many cards and not countering an Elspeth. Even so, game one took 30ish minutes and game 2 took 20ish, so game 3 lasted 30 seconds and we called it a draw at 20/20 blank board. I lived the dream in game 2, Ugin -10 to play new Ugin, Garruk, and Elspeth into an empty board. 1-1-1, fun games.
2-1-1
Round 5 vs UW control. Game one took 40 minutes, most of my time was spent playing a draw-go style until my opponent felt comfortable playing things. Many interactions went along the lines of threat=>kill=>counter=>kill=>opponent is out of mana. He played a PLA toward the end of the game, I had 3 removal spells in hand and Garruk building board for a few turns; I figure he was out of things to hit Garruk with since I had him for a solid 3 turns of draw-go from both sides. I -3 to kill PLA, response to all bounce is drop kill spells; I forced him to discard all the lands he bounced and he only had 4 others in play. End game one. Game 2 he stumbles on finding a counter for all 3 of the walkers I drop in a row after failing to save his 2; Garruk closes in about 10 minutes.
3-1-1
Garruk sounds like a joke in this deck, but he is the real deal. Trumps enemy Ugin in a pinch, finishes games really fast on his own, walls PLA really well. 3 Elspeth is still the original plan, she still hurts all the usual things and takes over games. Ugin is amazing! 8 board exile that wins the game if left unchecked; sweeper and finisher means high card efficiency. Lily is my only non-win condition walker, but she has good function as a tutor or for her +1 in a dull state.
After having had Ugin played against me, he doesn't hurt; nothing to sweep away except one or two walkers, so normally I lose 3 life and kill him in one turn. The only things that really leave a mark are Elspeth and Sorin. Takes at least 2 cards to get all their mess. I saw Ashiok in round 4, but they didn't feel like they hurt this time around; maybe it was just the deck they were in and I never put it together. Hornet Queen is still awkward to fight since she appears along side large creatures so I want to board out Anger, but Queen goes wide so I'd rather keep them.
I like this deck and was thinking about piloting it post FRF since the format seems to be: go under Ugin or be all about Ugin. Playing tap-out control is definitely more fun imo as well. Thoughts on the black siege and Kolaghan dragon?
Palace Siege is too slow. A 10 turn clock isn't really what it needs, obviously the Khans side is worthless as well, but the 2 life is nearly irrelevant by the time it comes down. The 4 Rams make hay in life gain because they land T2 or T3 and block hard, Siege just doesn't compare. If I was going to go for a clock like Palace Siege, I'd play Mogis, God of Slaughter; your opponent shouldn't have creatures, but you can let them choose 2 damage for awhile before they start to want to sac things.
Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury looked better in my earlier lists because I had 3 Stormbreath and 2 Sarkhan, I'd have dropped a Sarkhan for her. The Dash ability looks nice because of the wraths, but otherwise she has little benefit. Maybe the other dragons don't matter though; 5 damage is still pretty good.
I haven't tried the dragons much against FRF things since I used Ugin a few times; Sarkhan is too narrow, and Stormbreath is kind of a joke since Murderous Cut is pretty popular.
Played a few events since I last updated. 2 FNM and Game Day (only Saturday).
No changes to deck. Don't remember much from the first FNM, but a week ago I was frustrated with the deck, felt like it was being pushed out of the meta, went something like 2-1-2. I play pretty fast, but opposing control players usually sit and think for a really long time because of how little of my deck I generally show them during the course of a game.
Next FNM (this past Friday), I played at a shop I've never played at before; shout out to Shakopee's Phantasy Hobbies, met my fair share of cool people and great gamers if you're in the area. Anyway, I made some changes to the deck after having been fairly frustrated last week. The main board has not changed, it always feels above average in G1, but the side board went -1 Mardu Charm, -1 Resolute Archangel, -1 Thoughtseize, -1 Citadel Siege => +3 Mardu Strike Leader, +1 Torrent Elemental. Some odd changes, but Strike leader ripped all the control matchups in G2 and G3 when he showed up; as much as I hadn't thought through using Strike Leaders, Elemental had even less thought put into it. But what the hell, a few good players I know said I needed threat density really badly in G2+. FNM had some interesting games, nothing way out of the ordinary for my deck, but the Control matchups went really well due to Dashing in a Strike Leader and leaving a token. Enemy Ashiok retrieved my Torrent Elemental for me in a few games and it panned out really well, props to Lilly -2 for the set up into Ashiok. I think I went 2-2-1, very fun games.
GAME DAY!!
Still in Shakopee, was a really long day, so not all the games were remembered.
R1 - No idea, 2-0.
R2 - Guy playing Abzan + R, good deck, pretty stock list. 2-0
R3 - Goblins. This guy was playing a really cool mono Red deck that was not Boss Sligh, he was undefeated at this point and ended up going 3-1 before cut to top 8. G1, I forced him to stumble too much on removal and just got to Elspeth. G2, I board in a bunch of sweepers because aggro tends to lose to that, well the Dash abilities on Mardu Scout and Goblin Heelcutter combined with some burn, took me out in like 4-5 turns of my staring at a hand of 2 Drowns and 3 Anger. Ouch. G3, I realized my mistake, fixed it, managed to top deck 3 sheep after starting with just 1. Ugin ult into the 3 other walkers. 2-1.
3-0, standings are shown, I am top seed at this point.
R4 - Abzan. Pretty stock, but was running Palace Siege and Whip. instead of just Whip. Siege keeps a nice flow of Rhinos even after he only gets one, and I didn't see a single Utter End in G1. G2, more fight, but not enough to win. 0-2.
Cut to top 8. Standings look like this:
Seed 1: Abzan (from R4)
Seed 2: Goblins (His deck was slick)
Seed 3: Me
Didn't remember the rest.
R1 - Sultai control. Pretty stock list. I take G1 the way my deck is supposed to fight control. G2, some clutch plays but my opponent takes it in solid fashion by the end. G3, I get mana screwed at 4, but Strike Leader goes under the radar and drops 3 tokens unanswered for the win. 2-1
R2 - Goblins again. G1, 2 sheep for the slow down and forced extend into Anger. G2, I remember why I love Mardu Charm so much and bring them in to make instant blockers with them, works beautifully. 2-0.
R3 - Finals against Abzan from R4. I am dreading this match because of how it went last time. G1, as planned he reuses a couple rhinos and it's too much for me. G2, I manage to stabilize with some sheep (oddly good against Abzan) and one of my walkers finishes. G3, final game of the night... Opponent gets mana screwed, but my deck is slow enough that he still has a chance to recover. He gets 5 lands out by the time I start playing gas at T8 or T9 (I know, really slow, literally saw nothing with 2 Read the Bones). Since I had no gas though, I had a huge mass of removal to fight with, so anything he played was pushed into his yard. I got enough mana to hold removal and play threats. 2-1.
So happy to have taken the Game Day playmat!! I turned down the PPTQ qualifier because I couldn't go anyway. Gave my opponent the win and he gave me the rest of the prizes from 1st.
EDIT: I'm starting to get to the point where I play Read the Bones and 90% of the time I just draw the 2 I see on top. The deck plays such high redundancy that it doesn't really matter what I draw in many cases. I want to rethink the mana base and add Blue just so I can play Treasure Cruise. I may as well draw more, my yard is always huge, and if I'm using Torrent Elemental I'll get more advantage out of him. For now it's a thought and a play test experiment. We'll see if I bring it to any FNMs. I'm just not sure if the mana can take it; I already need BB and RR by T3 in most games, a W by T3 is great as well, but I can use WW on T5 in many cases... How many U can I fit?
EDIT: I'm starting to get to the point where I play Read the Bones and 90% of the time I just draw the 2 I see on top. The deck plays such high redundancy that it doesn't really matter what I draw in many cases. I want to rethink the mana base and add Blue just so I can play Treasure Cruise. I may as well draw more, my yard is always huge, and if I'm using Torrent Elemental I'll get more advantage out of him. For now it's a thought and a play test experiment. We'll see if I bring it to any FNMs. I'm just not sure if the mana can take it; I already need BB and RR by T3 in most games, a W by T3 is great as well, but I can use WW on T5 in many cases... How many U can I fit?
I've been experimenting with a budget version of Mardu control for a while and came to the conclusion that Treasure Cruise was too good not to play. My concept was to make the deck red/white based with lighter splashes of black and blue. Red/white gives strong early removal - you can also run Lightning Strike and possibly Chained to the Rocks to have turn 2 plays against aggro, with Anger of the Gods following up. The catch is with less black it's harder to justify Hero's Downfall, but you can usually handle walkers with a mix of Utter End, Lightning Strike and Negate.
Mastery of the Unseen is really great against UB control. If you can get it to stick against an Ashiok deck, you'll soon have an army of 2/2s that Ugin's -x ability can't touch. If your meta is really control heavy, I'd suggest trying it in your sideboard.
With all the Mana Confluences I think the mana could make it if you're only running something like Treasure Cruise as far as blue goes. Perhaps even consider cutting 2 Temple of Triumph and try some Mystic Monasterys just to help even more? Or just one. Do some testing and see what fits, but you'll have 5-6 sources for blue mana. Also consider an Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth so you're not so stressed about hitting black lands, and then you could also potentially cut some of the Temple of Malice for the Monastery's. Just ideas, not sure how well it would really work.
Do you know how the deck plays against GR Aggro? I'm keen to try it out but my meta is mostly GR Aggro, some Abzan, some Jeskai Tokens and UB control and then a little bit of everything else now and again.
@HumbleKami: I don't see much GR aggro, but with 12 1-for-1 removal you often have an answer for most significant threats. Even against control, I get most of my removal counted but my opponent gets little to no use out of threats. It's the Temur decks that drop resilient threats with counter backing that hurts; T3 Knuckleblade with Stubborn Denial backing is tough for this deck to beat in many cases; no one cares if you Downfall an Ashcloud, but Utter End gets countered plenty. Interactions like that hurt more than a little, so Elspeth support is often a big requirement to winning those games. Again, I don't see much GR aggro, and I'm not even familiar with a list for them.
@Bafflement: You're feeling more RWb? I can see some benefits, likely better against aggro than what I have been shoveling. Easily less mana intensive. What I run is actually much closer to BWr, bit more reference to that in what I'll say about adding Blue. Are you running much burn? I'm trying to stay away from burn and keep things that always 1-for-1 or better; the only card I considered that was even remotely "burn" related was Fated Conflagration, doesn't go to the face but until Ugin it only failed to kill Liliana after +1 (Garruk saw no relevant play and now Ugin as well) as far as walkers, and it killed every relevant creature save for Doomwake Giant. Buuut since there are now 3 relevant walkers that survive it, it won't see any inclusion in my deck. I bring it up because walkers are the hardest threat to deal with the vast majority of the time.
@DarklingScribe: It's certainly a good card, I reference it in an FNM report earlier as having totally roasted my deck. As far as including it in my deck... I'm too scared to flip a walker into a 2/2. There really is nothing more I can say about that. It would probably be a good addition/substitute for what threat base I've changed to, but I don't like Manifest in a walker based deck.
On adding Blue: Since looking over the deck some more, I realize I only have 8 Red cards (hence BWr), 4 of those cards are RR and T3 staples. If I cut them/move them to the SB I can bring in Drown in Sorrow into the MB, then I'll only have 4 Red cards and they only require a single R and are not necessarily of massive importance. That'll swing the deck strongly toward BW with a distant Red splash; with that little presence I should be able to safely add some Blue!
My initial mark ups for adding blue involved -2 End Hostilities, -2 Thoughtseize, -2 Read the Bones, -2 Battlefield Forge to add +4 Treasure Cruise, +4 Mystic Monastery. An over all shift of +2 Lands (26 total) and -2 Spells. However, after thinking over the Anger vs Drown shift, I think I could add some better Blue threats because the mana gets so much better. The deck would look more BWur with a bigger Blue presence than Red. I don't want counterspells, they are not the goal, they require a different mind set for mana use, and we have better things to do. My best guess at tweaks are below.
Mana looks like:
18 Black (for 28 symbols)
16 White (for 22 symbols)
16 Blue (for 4 symbols)
16 Red (for 4 symbols)
4 Green (for 1 symbol)
Makes for 66 color sources in 26 lands (didn't count Green), pretty good compared to most decks.
Bah, I'm also tempted to want +2 Monastery Siege in place of -2 Read the Bones in the sideboard.
Additionally terrifying is that with the addition of Blue, we can use Tasigur without large repercussions from double Mana Confluence.
I don't want to edit a big portion of my thoughts, but after spelling out the mana base, I think we can just run 4 Anger MB and cut 2 Drowns in the SB. So in the list above, just switch the two if you like. Hell, I may be able to justify DTTs, but like I said earlier with Read the Bones being the same as Sign in Blood (usually) I just need more total draw.
16 Blue sources feels really over zealous after a few games, it's almost impossible to have RR on T3 because of it.
Treasure Cruise, while very good in testing, has given light to the fact that I can just run Dig Through Time. My initial thoughts on TC vs Read the Bones were good, but in the end it was just a path to recognize DTT was possible. Now it doesn't cost me life, I can EoT, and I can tailor my answers.
Because of DTT's addition and consistency, I've started looking at other things that cost UU. PLA is now a main deck card for me because the control match takes so long normally. This is a nice change because while PLA generally feels immortal against me (or anyone), I actually fight him fairly well because I can force enemy PLA to be bounced very frequently even through counters. My own PLA will not suffer the same removal issues against typical control lists; they are much more removal light and counter heavy. In this sense I hope to have sown up the control match pretty well.
Main deck went:
-4 TC, +4 DTT
-1 End Hostilities, +1 PLA
And some land balancing.
My side board changes weekly, last week I had 6 walkers in my board; I curved into Ashiok, Sorin, Sarkhan, Elspeth, Garruk, Ugin in one game. My opponent ran out of counters at Garruk. PLA is just uncounterable, so he is replacing 6 walkers from the board. PLA for an End Hostilities is a choice that I'm okay with because PLA is big enough to hurt midrange decks already, and I have enough spot removal to not worry about it anyway.
Silence the Believers has come in due to SBD and Sarkhan making a greater showing in my meta. Perilous Vault and Erebos are both responses to this GW manifest/devotion deck; while I'm sure I'll be removing any Whisperwoods before they get out of hand, I'll enjoy the additional board exiles for anything else.
Hundred-Handed One is just another puke I had in my trade binder to fight aggro, I wish he was Brimaz, but he isn't. He does get reach and some stupid good blocking if things go nuts though, so I'm not overly disappointed.
I'm worried about my removal to counterspell balance. More removal leaves me more open to getting killed by Xenagos and Nissa, but more counter leaves me open to faster decks. Silumgar's Command is great against both those walkers... I'm considering it, but isn't Negate just as good?
I'm hesitant about the Dragons in the board...? I think it'll be a good sudden shift in the control mirror, many decks keep Bile Blight to suddenly deal with Soldiers; I hope to make them completely useless in G2. Kolaghan's Command seems like some good tech against a ton of decks; Crush for random Whip decks, Raise Dead to supplement Ojutai, Shock to fight aggro, and Discard stapled to them all for card advantage.
Another package I'm considering is the Ojutai's Command+Palace Familiar or Arashin Cleric. The extra card is pretty good from what I hear, it comes down fast, can save a turn of damage from a dragon, and draws a card. Ojutai's Command brings it back in response to a dragon being cast for a psudo-Cryptic that will likely draw a card anyway. The Cleric can just be board tech against aggro if I need it, but it's out there. Any suggestions? I'm thinking -2 Anticipate +2 Familiar, -2 Negate (side) +2 Ojutai's Command. Just toying with the idea at this point.
You know back when block Khans was firing, there used to be this 4c Narset Control that put up great numbers. Ship it to standard and you could have something really powerful. You could probably find the DL on mtgtop8. Block Narset Control
One super obnoxious interaction that I didn't even intend on is to play Dromoka, then play Palace Siege for Khans, watch opponent scoop. UB control decks have incredibly few ways of dealing with enchantments that are already in play, and with Dromoka leading it they can't counter it. Now you just drop whatever dragons you want until they run out of removal and fold. Dromoka is really good in the control mirror; once you get up there in mana and find her, you can use her to sneak other things into play. I dropped her and a Thunderbreak one turn with counter backup for their turn, easy 6 damage and I only lost the Regent; attack with Dromoka, play Ojutai, opponent scoops. Play control, be patient, earn card advantage.*
After running this very suddenly last night, I already enjoy the new draw engine; feels like I'm actually building card advantage, takes less cards to build more advantage, and I can have more gas in the deck so I need to filter less.
While Thunderbreak Regent is a house of hilarity when you have Palace Siege out, Stormbreath just seems like a better fit. I'm adding a Dromoka and another Siege to the board, that interaction just rips typical control apart, and I can use Dragons mode vs aggro. While Kolaghan's Command was really good against everything I am removing them with the assumption that Dromoka into Siege will serve the same anti-control function. I am at 1 Kolaghan, 3 Stormbreath; if I had 2 Kolaghan I'd 2/2 split, she just races better, blocks other 4/4 dragons, and kills more walkers.*
The "Dragons matter" cards are really good. They are really really good. Foul-Tongue is probably the MVP, saving me from RDW a few times, and being that odd removal that hits enemy Ojutai/Silumgar. Scorn was rarely bad, I almost always had a dragon in hand if not in play.
My biggest worry today for Game Day is fighting Ashiok. It's an odd choice to go to dragons when Ashiok is an in color control finisher that plays off our dragons; by shifting away from Ashiok, we are allowing her to hurt us.
*I'm tempted to run the Dromoka/Palace recursion engine almost entirely on it's own without Ojutai/Regent/Stormbreath, it's just so overwhelming. She has lifelink to race, she's big enough to block really effectively, I can toss in more removal for things I don't like. She can be exiled which bothers me, but I don't think there's much of that running around.
EDIT: I don't have anything very real to post, so I'm just going to edit this here.
The idea is that Ojutai is good, but not the only good Dragonlord. Dromoka can protect anything you want to play; in the mirror, Dromoka protects a Palace Siege (Khans mode) from getting countered, now you can slam dragons the rest of the game with no regard for counters or removal! As long as the UB opponent isn't allowed to play Ugin or Perilous Vault you're probably just going to win. Dromoka+Kolaghan is 11 uncounterable damage for 12 mana.
The only issue is that you need to use Mana Confluence to make the deck run smoothly, most other UBw decks don't even bother with taking this much damage from their own lands.
3 DTT and 4 Prerogative is a little bit of an experiment. Anticipate sucks, it has no actual card value. The DTTs are only there to find Prerogative, and Prerogative is uncounterable draw 4; against control that is a very powerful play.
Between Dromoka and the card draw engine, I think the control mirror is pretty well sown up. The only issue is that I don't have my own Ugin in the deck, and I don't have any way of removing other enchantments.
4 Nomad Outpost
2 Mana Confluence
4 Temple of Malice
2 Bloodfell Caves
4 Temple of Triumph
2 Battlefield Forge
4 Temple of Silence
2 Caves of Koilos
Threats
2 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
2 Liliana Vess
3 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
3 Stormbreath Dragon
4 Anger of the Gods
4 End Hostilities
4 Crackling Doom
3 Hero's Downfall
3 Utter End
2 Devouring Light
2 Read the Bones
Other
4 Nyx-Fleece Ram
4 Mardu Charm
2 Drown in Sorrow
1 Hero's Downfall
1 Utter End
1 Devouring Light
2 Resolute Archangel
4 Bile Blight
Some observations I know are going to be questioned right away:
With FRF moving in soon I've put some thought toward what I'd like to change about the deck. Not much has presented itself. I don't like Crux of Fate, I don't know how many dragons are going to show up apart from my own and End Hostilities is still a thing. Citadel Siege Dragons mode seems good, forces them to extend into an obvious wrath, but feels like an unlikely pick up. Valorous Stance actually looked good for a few seconds until I remembered that Storbreath is pro-white so I can't give it Indestructible. Ugin, the Spirit Dragon is a super late sweeper that comes with an up side, might be a thing? I like Merciless Executioner, but I'm not sure it's function is important enough to warrant slots. I recently had Dead Drop suggested, haven't tested it yet. Silence the Believers looks decent, but doesn't really add anything I'm in dire need of. Perilous Vault is slow, but I love the effect.
Many people are saying the format will speed up with FRF in tow, my deck is not super cool with that. Obviously I already know what I'm doing against them, but I was hoping anyone had suggestions of additions or just changes in general. The shop I play at is really competitive, I rarely see the rouge deck and many go to PTQs. *snapshot of meta*
Ashiok wrecks me. No idea why; hardly any creatures to take, doesn't do damage, doesn't keep threats alive. But I rarely win a game when I see one. Maybe it's just bad luck? Maybe it's actually the deck it's in and I can't see why?
Savage Knuckleblade is also very effective against me and I feel as though Flamewake Phoenix will also be very good.
As a joke one week I ran mainboard -1 Read the Bones, -2 Bloodfell Caves, +1 Garruk, +2 Mana Confluence. Was not actually that bad, caught the few who saw it totally by surprise and won me the three games he showed up. Probably wouldn't do it more, but it was a fun experiment.
"Reveal a Dragon"
4 Nomad Outpost
4 Mana Confluence
4 Temple of Malice
4 Temple of Triumph
2 Battlefield Forge
4 Temple of Silence
2 Caves of Koilos
Threats
1 Garruk, Apex Predator
2 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
2 Liliana Vess
3 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
4 Anger of the Gods
4 End Hostilities
4 Crackling Doom
4 Hero's Downfall
4 Utter End
2 Read the Bones
2 Thoughtseize
Other
4 Nyx-Fleece Ram
4 Mardu Charm
4 Drown in Sorrow
2 Resolute Archangel
2 Read the Bones
2 Thoughtseize
1 Citadel Siege
Went 3-1-1 last night at FNM. My only loss was to a very interesting Creatureless Manifest deck.
Round 1 vs Stock Abzan Midrange. Both games went relatively quick, but both decks are pretty straight forward. I exhausted his threats pretty easily, then lost a few walkers to removal and stuck one to win. Basically how both games went. Brought in Mardu Charms to hunt for removal before I started being offensive, worked pretty well. Garruk closed both games this round. 2-0
1-0
Round 2 vs I forget. I went 2-0 pretty handily though.
2-0
Round 3 vs Creatureless Manifest. The deck was playing UW with a driving engine of Ephara, God of the Polis and Mastery of the Unseen. He ran a ton of counters, general removal, draw spells (Dig not Cruise). Anyway, he is essentially playing Flash Bears because they can't flip up (except Ephara). Apart from nearly decking himself he had infinite 2/2s with Flash. With a finite amount of removal, he didn't have to worry about too much I did. Was just a very awkward match for me. Easily lost 0-2 to an odd deck; I'm pretty sure he was 4-1 or better, was a smart player to boot.
2-1
Round 4 vs Ali Aintrazi's Sultai ramp without any counters. I recognized the list pretty quick, just started keeping tally of how many threats I killed until I was in the clear. I assumed for awhile he had some counters until I dropped my first Elspeth; he looked at it, looked at his hand, then said it resolved. Guy had thrown 2 Digs by then, really should know he doesn't even run counters if he is through that many cards and not countering an Elspeth. Even so, game one took 30ish minutes and game 2 took 20ish, so game 3 lasted 30 seconds and we called it a draw at 20/20 blank board. I lived the dream in game 2, Ugin -10 to play new Ugin, Garruk, and Elspeth into an empty board. 1-1-1, fun games.
2-1-1
Round 5 vs UW control. Game one took 40 minutes, most of my time was spent playing a draw-go style until my opponent felt comfortable playing things. Many interactions went along the lines of threat=>kill=>counter=>kill=>opponent is out of mana. He played a PLA toward the end of the game, I had 3 removal spells in hand and Garruk building board for a few turns; I figure he was out of things to hit Garruk with since I had him for a solid 3 turns of draw-go from both sides. I -3 to kill PLA, response to all bounce is drop kill spells; I forced him to discard all the lands he bounced and he only had 4 others in play. End game one. Game 2 he stumbles on finding a counter for all 3 of the walkers I drop in a row after failing to save his 2; Garruk closes in about 10 minutes.
3-1-1
Garruk sounds like a joke in this deck, but he is the real deal. Trumps enemy Ugin in a pinch, finishes games really fast on his own, walls PLA really well. 3 Elspeth is still the original plan, she still hurts all the usual things and takes over games. Ugin is amazing! 8 board exile that wins the game if left unchecked; sweeper and finisher means high card efficiency. Lily is my only non-win condition walker, but she has good function as a tutor or for her +1 in a dull state.
After having had Ugin played against me, he doesn't hurt; nothing to sweep away except one or two walkers, so normally I lose 3 life and kill him in one turn. The only things that really leave a mark are Elspeth and Sorin. Takes at least 2 cards to get all their mess. I saw Ashiok in round 4, but they didn't feel like they hurt this time around; maybe it was just the deck they were in and I never put it together. Hornet Queen is still awkward to fight since she appears along side large creatures so I want to board out Anger, but Queen goes wide so I'd rather keep them.
"Reveal a Dragon"
Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury looked better in my earlier lists because I had 3 Stormbreath and 2 Sarkhan, I'd have dropped a Sarkhan for her. The Dash ability looks nice because of the wraths, but otherwise she has little benefit. Maybe the other dragons don't matter though; 5 damage is still pretty good.
I haven't tried the dragons much against FRF things since I used Ugin a few times; Sarkhan is too narrow, and Stormbreath is kind of a joke since Murderous Cut is pretty popular.
"Reveal a Dragon"
No changes to deck. Don't remember much from the first FNM, but a week ago I was frustrated with the deck, felt like it was being pushed out of the meta, went something like 2-1-2. I play pretty fast, but opposing control players usually sit and think for a really long time because of how little of my deck I generally show them during the course of a game.
4 Nomad Outpost
4 Mana Confluence
4 Temple of Malice
4 Temple of Triumph
2 Battlefield Forge
4 Temple of Silence
2 Caves of Koilos
Threats
1 Garruk, Apex Predator
2 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
2 Liliana Vess
3 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
4 Anger of the Gods
4 End Hostilities
4 Crackling Doom
4 Hero's Downfall
4 Utter End
2 Read the Bones
2 Thoughtseize
Other
4 Nyx-Fleece Ram
3 Mardu Charm
4 Drown in Sorrow
1 Resolute Archangel
2 Read the Bones
1 Thoughtseize
1 Torrent Elemental
3 Mardu Strike Leader
Next FNM (this past Friday), I played at a shop I've never played at before; shout out to Shakopee's Phantasy Hobbies, met my fair share of cool people and great gamers if you're in the area. Anyway, I made some changes to the deck after having been fairly frustrated last week. The main board has not changed, it always feels above average in G1, but the side board went -1 Mardu Charm, -1 Resolute Archangel, -1 Thoughtseize, -1 Citadel Siege => +3 Mardu Strike Leader, +1 Torrent Elemental. Some odd changes, but Strike leader ripped all the control matchups in G2 and G3 when he showed up; as much as I hadn't thought through using Strike Leaders, Elemental had even less thought put into it. But what the hell, a few good players I know said I needed threat density really badly in G2+. FNM had some interesting games, nothing way out of the ordinary for my deck, but the Control matchups went really well due to Dashing in a Strike Leader and leaving a token. Enemy Ashiok retrieved my Torrent Elemental for me in a few games and it panned out really well, props to Lilly -2 for the set up into Ashiok. I think I went 2-2-1, very fun games.
GAME DAY!!
Still in Shakopee, was a really long day, so not all the games were remembered.
R1 - No idea, 2-0.
R2 - Guy playing Abzan + R, good deck, pretty stock list. 2-0
R3 - Goblins. This guy was playing a really cool mono Red deck that was not Boss Sligh, he was undefeated at this point and ended up going 3-1 before cut to top 8. G1, I forced him to stumble too much on removal and just got to Elspeth. G2, I board in a bunch of sweepers because aggro tends to lose to that, well the Dash abilities on Mardu Scout and Goblin Heelcutter combined with some burn, took me out in like 4-5 turns of my staring at a hand of 2 Drowns and 3 Anger. Ouch. G3, I realized my mistake, fixed it, managed to top deck 3 sheep after starting with just 1. Ugin ult into the 3 other walkers. 2-1.
3-0, standings are shown, I am top seed at this point.
R4 - Abzan. Pretty stock, but was running Palace Siege and Whip. instead of just Whip. Siege keeps a nice flow of Rhinos even after he only gets one, and I didn't see a single Utter End in G1. G2, more fight, but not enough to win. 0-2.
Cut to top 8. Standings look like this:
Seed 1: Abzan (from R4)
Seed 2: Goblins (His deck was slick)
Seed 3: Me
Didn't remember the rest.
R1 - Sultai control. Pretty stock list. I take G1 the way my deck is supposed to fight control. G2, some clutch plays but my opponent takes it in solid fashion by the end. G3, I get mana screwed at 4, but Strike Leader goes under the radar and drops 3 tokens unanswered for the win. 2-1
R2 - Goblins again. G1, 2 sheep for the slow down and forced extend into Anger. G2, I remember why I love Mardu Charm so much and bring them in to make instant blockers with them, works beautifully. 2-0.
R3 - Finals against Abzan from R4. I am dreading this match because of how it went last time. G1, as planned he reuses a couple rhinos and it's too much for me. G2, I manage to stabilize with some sheep (oddly good against Abzan) and one of my walkers finishes. G3, final game of the night... Opponent gets mana screwed, but my deck is slow enough that he still has a chance to recover. He gets 5 lands out by the time I start playing gas at T8 or T9 (I know, really slow, literally saw nothing with 2 Read the Bones). Since I had no gas though, I had a huge mass of removal to fight with, so anything he played was pushed into his yard. I got enough mana to hold removal and play threats. 2-1.
So happy to have taken the Game Day playmat!! I turned down the PPTQ qualifier because I couldn't go anyway. Gave my opponent the win and he gave me the rest of the prizes from 1st.
EDIT: I'm starting to get to the point where I play Read the Bones and 90% of the time I just draw the 2 I see on top. The deck plays such high redundancy that it doesn't really matter what I draw in many cases. I want to rethink the mana base and add Blue just so I can play Treasure Cruise. I may as well draw more, my yard is always huge, and if I'm using Torrent Elemental I'll get more advantage out of him. For now it's a thought and a play test experiment. We'll see if I bring it to any FNMs. I'm just not sure if the mana can take it; I already need BB and RR by T3 in most games, a W by T3 is great as well, but I can use WW on T5 in many cases... How many U can I fit?
"Reveal a Dragon"
I've been experimenting with a budget version of Mardu control for a while and came to the conclusion that Treasure Cruise was too good not to play. My concept was to make the deck red/white based with lighter splashes of black and blue. Red/white gives strong early removal - you can also run Lightning Strike and possibly Chained to the Rocks to have turn 2 plays against aggro, with Anger of the Gods following up. The catch is with less black it's harder to justify Hero's Downfall, but you can usually handle walkers with a mix of Utter End, Lightning Strike and Negate.
Do you know how the deck plays against GR Aggro? I'm keen to try it out but my meta is mostly GR Aggro, some Abzan, some Jeskai Tokens and UB control and then a little bit of everything else now and again.
@Bafflement: You're feeling more RWb? I can see some benefits, likely better against aggro than what I have been shoveling. Easily less mana intensive. What I run is actually much closer to BWr, bit more reference to that in what I'll say about adding Blue. Are you running much burn? I'm trying to stay away from burn and keep things that always 1-for-1 or better; the only card I considered that was even remotely "burn" related was Fated Conflagration, doesn't go to the face but until Ugin it only failed to kill Liliana after +1 (Garruk saw no relevant play and now Ugin as well) as far as walkers, and it killed every relevant creature save for Doomwake Giant. Buuut since there are now 3 relevant walkers that survive it, it won't see any inclusion in my deck. I bring it up because walkers are the hardest threat to deal with the vast majority of the time.
@DarklingScribe: It's certainly a good card, I reference it in an FNM report earlier as having totally roasted my deck. As far as including it in my deck... I'm too scared to flip a walker into a 2/2. There really is nothing more I can say about that. It would probably be a good addition/substitute for what threat base I've changed to, but I don't like Manifest in a walker based deck.
On adding Blue: Since looking over the deck some more, I realize I only have 8 Red cards (hence BWr), 4 of those cards are RR and T3 staples. If I cut them/move them to the SB I can bring in Drown in Sorrow into the MB, then I'll only have 4 Red cards and they only require a single R and are not necessarily of massive importance. That'll swing the deck strongly toward BW with a distant Red splash; with that little presence I should be able to safely add some Blue!
My initial mark ups for adding blue involved -2 End Hostilities, -2 Thoughtseize, -2 Read the Bones, -2 Battlefield Forge to add +4 Treasure Cruise, +4 Mystic Monastery. An over all shift of +2 Lands (26 total) and -2 Spells. However, after thinking over the Anger vs Drown shift, I think I could add some better Blue threats because the mana gets so much better. The deck would look more BWur with a bigger Blue presence than Red. I don't want counterspells, they are not the goal, they require a different mind set for mana use, and we have better things to do. My best guess at tweaks are below.
4 Nomad Outpost
2 Mystic Monastery
4 Mana Confluence
4 Temple of Deceit
4 Temple of Epiphany
4 Temple of Silence
2 Caves of Koilos
2 Shivan Reef
Threats
1 Garruk, Apex Predator
2 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
2 Liliana Vess
3 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
4 Drown in Sorrow
2 End Hostilities
4 Crackling Doom
4 Hero's Downfall
4 Utter End
4 Treasure Cruise
Other
4 Nyx-Fleece Ram
2 Anger of the Gods
1 Resolute Archangel
2 Read the Bones
2 Keranos, God of Storms
2 Torrent Elemental
4 Mardu Strike Leader
2 End Hostilities
18 Black (for 28 symbols)
16 White (for 22 symbols)
16 Blue (for 4 symbols)
16 Red (for 4 symbols)
4 Green (for 1 symbol)
Makes for 66 color sources in 26 lands (didn't count Green), pretty good compared to most decks.
Additionally terrifying is that with the addition of Blue, we can use Tasigur without large repercussions from double Mana Confluence.
I don't want to edit a big portion of my thoughts, but after spelling out the mana base, I think we can just run 4 Anger MB and cut 2 Drowns in the SB. So in the list above, just switch the two if you like. Hell, I may be able to justify DTTs, but like I said earlier with Read the Bones being the same as Sign in Blood (usually) I just need more total draw.
2 Shivan Reef (maybe BF Forge)
4 Mana Confluence
2 Temple of Malice
2 Temple of Triumph
2 Temple of Deceit
2 Temple of Epiphany
4 Temple of Silence
2 Mystic Monastery
4 Nomad Outpost
"Reveal a Dragon"
B/W
Because of DTT's addition and consistency, I've started looking at other things that cost UU. PLA is now a main deck card for me because the control match takes so long normally. This is a nice change because while PLA generally feels immortal against me (or anyone), I actually fight him fairly well because I can force enemy PLA to be bounced very frequently even through counters. My own PLA will not suffer the same removal issues against typical control lists; they are much more removal light and counter heavy. In this sense I hope to have sown up the control match pretty well.
Right now, the deck looks like:
2 Caves of Koilos
2 Shivan Reef
4 Mana Confluence
4 Temple of Malice
2 Temple of Triumph
2 Temple of Deceit
2 Temple of Epiphany
2 Temple of Silence
2 Mystic Monastery
4 Nomad Outpost
Threats
1 Pearl Lake Ancient
1 Garruk, Apex Predator
2 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
2 Liliana Vess
3 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
4 Anger of the Gods
1 End Hostilities
4 Crackling Doom
4 Hero's Downfall
4 Utter End
4 Dig Through Time
Other
4 Nyx-Fleece Ram
1 Resolute Archangel
1 Hundred-Handed One
2 Erbos, God of the Dead
2 Silence the Believers
2 End Hostilities
3 Perilous Vault
4 Drown in Sorrow
Main deck went:
-4 TC, +4 DTT
-1 End Hostilities, +1 PLA
And some land balancing.
My side board changes weekly, last week I had 6 walkers in my board; I curved into Ashiok, Sorin, Sarkhan, Elspeth, Garruk, Ugin in one game. My opponent ran out of counters at Garruk. PLA is just uncounterable, so he is replacing 6 walkers from the board. PLA for an End Hostilities is a choice that I'm okay with because PLA is big enough to hurt midrange decks already, and I have enough spot removal to not worry about it anyway.
Silence the Believers has come in due to SBD and Sarkhan making a greater showing in my meta. Perilous Vault and Erebos are both responses to this GW manifest/devotion deck; while I'm sure I'll be removing any Whisperwoods before they get out of hand, I'll enjoy the additional board exiles for anything else.
Hundred-Handed One is just another puke I had in my trade binder to fight aggro, I wish he was Brimaz, but he isn't. He does get reach and some stupid good blocking if things go nuts though, so I'm not overly disappointed.
"Reveal a Dragon"
This is what I'm bringing to FNM pre-Game-Day.
4 Shivan Reef
4 Mana Confluence
1 Dismal Backwater
3 Temple of Enlightenment
4 Temple of Deceit
4 Temple of Malice
2 Mystic Monastery
4 Nomad Outpost
Threats
1 Keranos, God of Storms
3 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
4 Anticipate
4 Dig Through Time
Counter
2 Nullify
3 Disdainful Stroke
4 Dissolve
Removal
2 Ultimate Price
3 Anger of the Gods
4 Crackling Doom
4 Hero's Downfall
1 Disdainful Stroke
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Keranos, God of Storms (Monastery Siege?)
2 Negate (Not a fan right now)
2 Ultimate Price
2 Nullify
3 Kolaghan's Command
3 Dragonlord Ojutai
I'm worried about my removal to counterspell balance. More removal leaves me more open to getting killed by Xenagos and Nissa, but more counter leaves me open to faster decks. Silumgar's Command is great against both those walkers... I'm considering it, but isn't Negate just as good?
I'm hesitant about the Dragons in the board...? I think it'll be a good sudden shift in the control mirror, many decks keep Bile Blight to suddenly deal with Soldiers; I hope to make them completely useless in G2. Kolaghan's Command seems like some good tech against a ton of decks; Crush for random Whip decks, Raise Dead to supplement Ojutai, Shock to fight aggro, and Discard stapled to them all for card advantage.
Another package I'm considering is the Ojutai's Command+Palace Familiar or Arashin Cleric. The extra card is pretty good from what I hear, it comes down fast, can save a turn of damage from a dragon, and draws a card. Ojutai's Command brings it back in response to a dragon being cast for a psudo-Cryptic that will likely draw a card anyway. The Cleric can just be board tech against aggro if I need it, but it's out there. Any suggestions? I'm thinking -2 Anticipate +2 Familiar, -2 Negate (side) +2 Ojutai's Command. Just toying with the idea at this point.
"Reveal a Dragon"
4 Shivan Reef
4 Mana Confluence
1 Dismal Backwater
3 Temple of Enlightenment
4 Temple of Deceit
4 Temple of Malice
2 Mystic Monastery
4 Nomad Outpost
Threats
1 Dragonlord Dromoka
3 Dragonlord Ojutai
4 Thunderbreak Regent
3 Jace's Ingenuity
1 Dragonlord's Prerogative
Counter
1 Disdainful Stroke
4 Silumgar's Scorn
4 Dissolve
Removal
2 Ultimate Price
3 Anger of the Gods
4 Crackling Doom
2 Hero's Downfall
2 Foul-Tongue Invocation
3 Disdainful Stroke
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Palace Siege
1 Dragonlord Kolaghan
2 Ultimate Price
2 Foul-Tongue Invocation
3 Kolaghan's Command
2 Hero's Downfall
One super obnoxious interaction that I didn't even intend on is to play Dromoka, then play Palace Siege for Khans, watch opponent scoop. UB control decks have incredibly few ways of dealing with enchantments that are already in play, and with Dromoka leading it they can't counter it. Now you just drop whatever dragons you want until they run out of removal and fold. Dromoka is really good in the control mirror; once you get up there in mana and find her, you can use her to sneak other things into play. I dropped her and a Thunderbreak one turn with counter backup for their turn, easy 6 damage and I only lost the Regent; attack with Dromoka, play Ojutai, opponent scoops. Play control, be patient, earn card advantage.*
After running this very suddenly last night, I already enjoy the new draw engine; feels like I'm actually building card advantage, takes less cards to build more advantage, and I can have more gas in the deck so I need to filter less.
While Thunderbreak Regent is a house of hilarity when you have Palace Siege out, Stormbreath just seems like a better fit. I'm adding a Dromoka and another Siege to the board, that interaction just rips typical control apart, and I can use Dragons mode vs aggro. While Kolaghan's Command was really good against everything I am removing them with the assumption that Dromoka into Siege will serve the same anti-control function. I am at 1 Kolaghan, 3 Stormbreath; if I had 2 Kolaghan I'd 2/2 split, she just races better, blocks other 4/4 dragons, and kills more walkers.*
The "Dragons matter" cards are really good. They are really really good. Foul-Tongue is probably the MVP, saving me from RDW a few times, and being that odd removal that hits enemy Ojutai/Silumgar. Scorn was rarely bad, I almost always had a dragon in hand if not in play.
My biggest worry today for Game Day is fighting Ashiok. It's an odd choice to go to dragons when Ashiok is an in color control finisher that plays off our dragons; by shifting away from Ashiok, we are allowing her to hurt us.
*I'm tempted to run the Dromoka/Palace recursion engine almost entirely on it's own without Ojutai/Regent/Stormbreath, it's just so overwhelming. She has lifelink to race, she's big enough to block really effectively, I can toss in more removal for things I don't like. She can be exiled which bothers me, but I don't think there's much of that running around.
EDIT: I don't have anything very real to post, so I'm just going to edit this here.
I'm looking at running this:
2 Haven of the Spirit Dragon
4 Crucible of the Spirit Dragon
4 Temple of Deceit
4 Dismal Backwater
4 Mana Confluence
2 Polluted Delta
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Swamp
3 Island
Card Draw
4 Dragonlord's Prerogative
3 Dig Through Time
4 Hero's Downfall
3 Foul-Tongue Invocation
2 Bile Blight
Counter
4 Silumgar's Scorn
4 Dissolve
1 Negate
Threats
3 Dragonlord Dromoka
3 Dragonlord Ojutai
1 Dragonlord Kolaghan
Other
2 Thoughtseize
2 Thoughtseize
1 Foul-Tongue Invocation
3 Negate
2 Palace Siege
2 Dragonlord Silumgar (maybe)
1 Disdainful Stroke (1 to 3)
3 Ultimate Price
The idea is that Ojutai is good, but not the only good Dragonlord. Dromoka can protect anything you want to play; in the mirror, Dromoka protects a Palace Siege (Khans mode) from getting countered, now you can slam dragons the rest of the game with no regard for counters or removal! As long as the UB opponent isn't allowed to play Ugin or Perilous Vault you're probably just going to win. Dromoka+Kolaghan is 11 uncounterable damage for 12 mana.
The only issue is that you need to use Mana Confluence to make the deck run smoothly, most other UBw decks don't even bother with taking this much damage from their own lands.
3 DTT and 4 Prerogative is a little bit of an experiment. Anticipate sucks, it has no actual card value. The DTTs are only there to find Prerogative, and Prerogative is uncounterable draw 4; against control that is a very powerful play.
Between Dromoka and the card draw engine, I think the control mirror is pretty well sown up. The only issue is that I don't have my own Ugin in the deck, and I don't have any way of removing other enchantments.
"Reveal a Dragon"