Introduction
On Game Day I took my boring ole snek deck and came up against an amazing Sultai Delirium Reanimator deck with Champion of Wits, The Scarab God, The Gitrog Monster, Ranumap Excavator, Traverse the Ulvenwald and more. I barely beat it, but suffered from severe deck envy.
This is not an established archetype in this format, so try this if:
You like unusual and powerful plays
You are willing to take the risk of being run over by aggro decks before your game plan develops
You like setting up your graveyard and then playing creatures from both yards
You have some brewer in you
You don't need to be playing the "best deck" for this particular event
These archetypes are by no means solved. Please help us break them.
History
This archetype is new with the release of The Scrab God in Hour of Devastation. Reanimator decks have been making some noise as linked to from the Decklists section below. Scope and Deconfliction
There are lots of reanimator threads around, what distinguishes this one? We are not a Zombie deck with a couple of The Scarab God, as there is a Zombie thread currently in Proven. We are not Grixis Reanimator, as there is already a thread for that. We are not primarily reanimating with God-Pharaoh's Gift as there is another thread for that, but I suppose some people might throw in a value singleton Gift. We include Dimir, Sultai and Sultai Delirium reanimator decks. If we generate too much traffic and pull in different directions we can break into multiple threads.
Decklists
Below are links to various decks that have achieved notable results:
Here is a Grixis MTGO 5-0 league version by JMNK. Yeah, I guess Goblin Dark Dwellers can make use of the things we dump in the bin or cast turns 1-3. Eric Froehlich discusses it here.
Of two The Scarab God decks featured for 5-0ing an MTGO league, this Dimir one by Mojo seems to fit what we are doing here. Mindwrack Demon and 4 Death's Majesty.
Strategic Planning: Pro - Fills bin, card selection; Con - doesn't affect board by itself. Champion of Wits: Pro - card selection and fills the bin immediately, eternalized provides card advantage; Con - slow, eternalizing into Grasp can be a disaster. Oath of Jace: Pro - card advantage and selection while filling bin, with multiples, can add enchantment for delirium; Con - slow, doesn't affect board by itself. Liliana, Death's Majesty: Pro - powerful, can help with delirium; Con - Expensive, Heart of Kiran. The Scarab God: Pro - reanimates, recurs narurally, decent body for cost; Con - expensive with expensive activated ability. Demon of Dark Schemes: Pro - reanimates, sweeps, big flyer; Con - expensive with challenging activated ability, hard to cast, no real synergistic energy sources. Ever After: Pro - two targets!; Con - Expensive.
1 Drop Gnarlwood Dryad: Pro - Deathtouch, above the curve with Delirium; Con - fragile without Delirium. Narnam Renegade: Pro - Deathtouch, above the curve with revolt, always >1 toughness; Con - Revolt is hard to achieve early.
2 Drop Gifted Aetherborn: Pro - lifelink, deathtouch, cheap, just wins races if not removed; Con - hard to cast T2. Glint-Sleeve Siphoner: Pro - card advantage; Con - fragile. One of the biggest draws to an energy build. Grim Flayer: Pro - Can turn itself into a 4/4 trampler that fixes our draws and enables Delirium, Eternalized with Delirium is a 6/6 trampler that provides card selection and virtual card advantage by stuffing the bin; Con - without Delirium it is undersized and dies to everything (Shock), on the draw it can be hard to get it through. Scrapheap Scrounger: Pro - hits hard, can be recurred; Con - doesn't block. Servant of the Conduit - great for ramping to Gearhulk, can be an energy source, but lousy for being a 2/2. Sylvan Advocate: Pro - vigilance interacts well with Rishkar, great bang/buck late game, makes Hissing Quagmire better; Con - can't attack into Heart, Pacifist, Harvester early, don't want to block Scrounger, no benefits if swept.
3 Drop Manglehorn: Pro - Card and tempo advantage against artifacts; Con - mopey body for the cost Tireless Tracker: Pro - card advantage!, can get big, even better with Evolving Wilds; Con - dies easily, best as a 4-drop.
4 Drop Gonti, Lord of Luxury: Pro - card advantage; Con - slow. Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet: Pro - lifegain, big butt, exiles recursive creatures, can take over and grow itself; Con - slow, under curve until grown, expensive activated ability, no ETB means can be tempo-negative. Best in decks with more removal.
5 Drop Ishkanah, Grafwidow: Pro - with Delirium, can clog up the air and ground, can do direct life loss damage with ability; Con - better on defense, not worthwhile without Delirium.
6+ Drop Noxious Gearhulk: Pro - Card advantage, lifegain, two types for Delirium, menace makes it hard to block; Con - expensive, undersized Torrential Gearhulk: Pro - Card advantage, two types for Delirium, best with lots of instants; Con - expensive Razaketh, the Foulblooded: Pro - Card advantage, huge, flying trample; Con - super-expensive, needs other creatures for card advantage
Removal Fatal Push: Pro - efficient removal; Con - not good against control or 5+ drops, revolt is not necessarily easy to achieve with this deck which makes it hard to hit 3-4 drops. Grasp of Darkness: Pro - kills most creature that you need killed like unbuffed Heart, Thing in the Ice, defeats indestructibility, only two mana (cough, kill target Hazoret, cough); Con - hard to cast. Murder: Pro - instant, unconditional; Con - expensive, hard to cast. Never // Return: Pro - sorcery helps Delirium, hits Planeswalkers, Return can be useful for a body and to get rid of Scrapheap Scrounger or Dread Wanderer; Con - expensive, hard to cast. Ruinous Path: Pro - sorcery helps Delirium, hits Planeswalkers, awaken option; Con - expensive, hard to cast. To the Slaughter: Pro - instant, can hit Planeswalkers with Delirium; Con - conditional. Consign // Oblivion: Pro - awkward removal, card advantage, discard still valuable; Con - expensive.
Draw, Tutor, Scry Attune with Aether: Pro - fixing, energy enabler; Con - slow and worse late game than Traverse. Oath of Nissa: Pro - cheap, selection, gets gas often, multiples help delirium; Con - bad when it misses, durdle. Traverse the Ulvenwald: Pro - downside is land with a bit of fixing, upside is the best creature for the situation, sorcery is good for Delirium; Con - without Delirium, a late land could be low impact. Lifecrafter's Bestiary: Pro - Cheap card advantage, free scrys; Con - slow, doesn't affect board by itself. Glimmer of Genius: Pro - Cheap card advantage, free scrys and energy, good with Torrential Gearhulk, good with Demon of Dark Schemes; Con - slow, doesn't affect board by itself. Hieroglyphic Illuminations: Pro - Cheap card advantage, cycling, particularly good with Torrential Gearhulk; Con - slow, doesn't affect board by itself.
Reaction Dispel: Pro - ; Con - . Negate: Pro - ; Con - .
Disruption Harsh Scrutiny: Pro - cheap, scry; Con - specialized toward decks that we generally do well against anyway. Lay Bare the Heart: Pro - gets rid of many things you really care about, can clear path or draw counter to let you resolve what you really want to; Con - can be a bad topdeck. Often in sideboards to bring in against control and combo. Transgress the Mind: Pro - gets rid of most things you really care about permanently, can clear path or draw counter to let you resolve what you really want to; Con - can be a bad topdeck. Often in sideboards to bring in against control and combo. Dispossess: Pro - can hit all copies of Marvel or Torrential Gearhulk, whether in hand or not; Con - Only hits artifacts. Tempo hit. Card disadvantage if they don't have any in hand. Can be awful to draw in multiples. Doomfall: Pro - versatile, exiles; Con - slow. Tempo hit. Can be bad topdeck. Lost Legacy: Pro - can hit all copies, whether in hand or not; Con - Not hitting artifacts is a big drawback as you really want to be able to name Torrential Gearhulk. Tempo hit. Card disadvantage if they don't have any in hand. Pick the Brain: Pro - general, gets all non-played copies; Con - slow, limited to cards in hand.
Specialized Hate Natural State: Pro - Cheap, instant; Con - can't hit Metallurgic Summonings, Colossus, Panharmonicon, Marvel, ... Crook of Condemnation: Pro - targets specifically; Con - one card per turn cycle. Dissenter's Deliverance: Pro - instant speed, can be cycled; Con - specialized. Natural Obsolescence: Pro - almost as good as exile; Con - specialized. Appetite for the Unnatural: Pro - general, instant, lifegain can be surprisingly relevant; Con - slow, hate to use it on recursive creature like Scrounger.
Misc Artifacts Aethersphere Harvester: Pro - Lifelink, Evasion, big butt, can't be targeted by unrevolted Push;Con - Requires another creature to crew.
Planeswalkers Liliana, the Last Hope: Pro - cheap for a planeswalker, can help with delirium, can gain cards in a heavy creature deck, excellent against 1-toughness creatures, ultimate can just win game; Con - Heart of Kiran, Disallow. Nissa, Vital Force: Pro - reaches powerful ultimate quickly, can ramp or be a quick beating for opponent; Con - slow, conditional. Ob Nixilis Reignited: Pro - unconditional removal, card draw; Con - slow, Heart of Kiran.
Aether Hub: Pro - Energy, fixing; Con - inconsistent color source. Blooming Marsh: Pro - Great fixing early; Con - not great topdecked. Botanical Sanctum: Pro - Great fixing early; Con - not great topdecked. Choked Estuary: Pro - Great fixing early; Con - not great topdecked, rotates soon. Fetid Pools: Pro - Fixing, cycling; Con - Tapped. Evolving Wilds: Pro - Allows better Trackers and Pushes, improves fixing; Con - comes into play tapped, awful against Thalia. Hissing Quagmire: Pro - Good fixing, as a creature can push late damage or trade with much bigger creatures due to deathtouch; Con - Tapped initially, fragile as a creature. Hostile Desert: Pro - Damage!; Con - colorless doesn't help fixing. Lumbering Falls: Pro - Fixing, hexproof when activated; Con - CIPT. Sunken Hollow: Pro - Fixing; Con - Rotates soon.
Well, that was embarrassing! I took Veveil's list to an 0-2-2 showing last night, drawing snek and Grixis Control while losing to Boros aggro and mono-W Eldrazi. That said, I was well positioned to win the draws if I had played faster and the aggro matches went to 3 games, so with a better, faster and more experienced pilot, the deck could have done significantly better.
We have built a version of Athal's list and in early testing, it seems good against mono-W Eldrazi. We may take it out next Monday.
Ross Merriam takes the Veveil's 5-0 League deck out for a spin on Star City here. Spoiler alert: he did better with it than I. Seth Mansfield on tcgplayer called us out as #9 (shared with Gifts) of the ten best decks in Standard.
I basically play the same list as the TCG Sulti reanimator one listed in the link above but I am:
+2 Gonti, Lord of Luxury
-1 Oath of Jace
-1 Strategic Planning
I've been toying with this but just as dimir. The sultan deck looks disgustingly cool but so much of the green rotates out I stuck with just U/B.
I've found that early opening hands with lots of interaction is ideal. Build a mana base, counter and kill some of their stuff, then once we hit turn 4 drop champion then it's off to the races with a Lilly or Scarab god.
I've been toying with this but just as dimir. The sultan deck looks disgustingly cool but so much of the green rotates out I stuck with just U/B.
I've found that early opening hands with lots of interaction is ideal. Build a mana base, counter and kill some of their stuff, then once we hit turn 4 drop champion then it's off to the races with a Lilly or Scarab god.
True. I've been trying to figure out the best game plan for surviving the aggro rush in turns 1-4. If this deck survives those turns it seems to stabilize and turn the corner fast. Been fiddling with harsh scrutiny, lay bare the heart, doomfall, never//return and random counterspells. Nothing really seems consistent tho. Thoughts?
True. I've been trying to figure out the best game plan for surviving the aggro rush in turns 1-4. If this deck survives those turns it seems to stabilize and turn the corner fast. Been fiddling with harsh scrutiny, lay bare the heart, doomfall, never//return and random counterspells. Nothing really seems consistent tho. Thoughts?
Welcome!
In general, hand disruption is tempo-negative. We are spending our turn without helping the situation on the board while the opponent is spending their turn making the situation on the board worse for us. It works against control because they are not building a board presence, but I question its utility against aggro. Against aggro I think we want cheap removal (Fatal Push, Grasp), sweepers (Yahenni's Expertise, Flaying Tendrils), lifegain (Gifted Aetherborn, Kalitas, Noxious Gearhulk) and bodies to chump with when we can block (Champion of Wits, Catacomb Sifter, Walking Ballista).
Cheap counterspells might work in theory. Having enough to get the right one and have mana up in time seems challenging and might take too many slots, so I feel skeptical. In addition, recursive creatures beat non-exiling counterspells.
I've been focusing on "good cards", but you could experiment with "bad cards". For meta reasons, I chose to play Mono-r on Monday. In the finals I was paired against a UG brew targeted at Mono-R that had already beaten at least one Mono-R in the hands of a player who plays it every week. I played against Champion of Wits, Honored Hydra, Thriving Turtle(!), Aether Swooper, Confiscation Coup, Greenbelt Rampager with my tuned tier 1 deck and barely won. Some of it was certainly bad, but some of it was effective. Thriving Turtle? Aether Meltdown? Aether Theorist? Shielded Aether Thief? You could try something offbeat.
Oh man, aether thief is an excellent add! One of my favorite cards. Aether meltdown could be cool and both give fuel to demon for addition re animation. Thanks!
True. I've been trying to figure out the best game plan for surviving the aggro rush in turns 1-4. If this deck survives those turns it seems to stabilize and turn the corner fast. Been fiddling with harsh scrutiny, lay bare the heart, doomfall, never//return and random counterspells. Nothing really seems consistent tho. Thoughts?
i've been playing a UB build for a few weeks. literally cannot lose to mono-red. i'm something like 16-1 vs that deck. zombies is slightly harder but i am still favored big time. the aggro matchups are the easiest.
control isn't so bad once you know how to navigate it.
GB matchup is favorable.
I feel like a slight dog to Temur Energy. Still trying to shore that one up.
Ramp decks are a bloodbath... it feels pretty hopeless...
was just wondering how the deck will look like post rotation, any ideas?
you lose Kalitas (who's really there to brick wall the red decks which are pretty much dead after rotation anyway), and grasp, which hopefully will be replaced by a new removal spell.
also lose choked estuary and sunken hollow which are partially replaced by Drowned Catacombs.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern U Merfolk U WUBRGPeopleGRBUW U Turbo Turns U UB Fae BU WBG Aristocrats GBW
Sorry guys, but we can't talk about new cards here until Ixalan is fully spoiled. If you want to start a new thread in New Card Discussion, that's fine. Otherwise, you can only discuss cards rotating out. Thanks - hoser2
Sorry guys, but we can't talk about new cards here until Ixalan is fully spoiled. If you want to start a new thread in New Card Discussion, that's fine. Otherwise, you can only discuss cards rotating out. Thanks - hoser2
this crap is so petty and irritating...
getting sick of this place...
Private Mod Note
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Modern U Merfolk U WUBRGPeopleGRBUW U Turbo Turns U UB Fae BU WBG Aristocrats GBW
I took a slightly modified version of Athal's Sultai list out for a four round spin last night: 2-1-1. I was just outdrawn and outplayed in one match, but the deck is good and fun. There are so many possible lines that I feel the need for more practice with it just to understand and then even more to get my playspeed up and to know when to give up and try to win the next game.
So I've been fiddling with this off and on for a few weeks. Will have my rotation proof decklist in the next couple of days.
I've moved up on disallow and down on most of the other counters. Being able to stop a gate to the afterlife or crook activation is a real good play as I run into lot gpg decks. Aether thief has performed well against aggro and is a great scarab god target as it is a 0/4, but not a defender. Aether meltdown is not much aside from a stall tactic, but the energy has helped to further activate demon reanimation.
I did one game cast aether on my own zombie from a never//return cast, then sac to razaoeth, then use the energy to reanimate their glorybringer. You can make some sick nasty plays but as said above, has so many options that you need to play it lots to get used to piloting it.
In watching people play versions of this online, I've seen them pitch some lands into the graveyard. This is hardly ever the play. This deck is hungry for mana. Most games go a bit long as we take a while to set up then durdle about. Having access to 8 mana is really good with scarab god out.
I am going to give Carrier Thrall a try tonight at FNM. It's a vampire, which plays well with Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet. Also, it leaves behind a scion token when it chumps or is swept, which can help the deck to ramp into its bigger spells.
Posted this in the sultai midrange thread and was directed here. This is the new Sultai reanimator list I've been working on and playing the last week. Went 3-1 twice in that time.
Making tweaks for the last couple of events before the new set hits. I've contemplated lots of cards. The main flex spots in the deck so far are the the essence scatter for me. I've thought about maybe supreme will to improve the approach match up game one, or just 1 more champion of wits, 1 more noxious gearhulk. Every other card feels right in the deck at this point.
Walking Ballista works with eternalize, but not so much with Journey to Eternity // Atzal, Cave of Eternity unless the intent is to just strait flip the card and abuse the free double sacrifice somehow. We lack a good aristocrats engine outside of Marionette Master, but there's a few neat tricks still floating around in Aether Revolt. The main limitation is that the cost of many of the cards requires mana and lots of it.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
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Introduction
On Game Day I took my boring ole snek deck and came up against an amazing Sultai Delirium Reanimator deck with Champion of Wits, The Scarab God, The Gitrog Monster, Ranumap Excavator, Traverse the Ulvenwald and more. I barely beat it, but suffered from severe deck envy.
So what decks are we talking about here? We are reanimating stuff with The Scarab God; Liliana, Death's Majesty; Demon of Dark Schemes and/or Ever After.
This is not an established archetype in this format, so try this if:
History
This archetype is new with the release of The Scrab God in Hour of Devastation. Reanimator decks have been making some noise as linked to from the Decklists section below.
Scope and Deconfliction
There are lots of reanimator threads around, what distinguishes this one? We are not a Zombie deck with a couple of The Scarab God, as there is a Zombie thread currently in Proven. We are not Grixis Reanimator, as there is already a thread for that. We are not primarily reanimating with God-Pharaoh's Gift as there is another thread for that, but I suppose some people might throw in a value singleton Gift. We include Dimir, Sultai and Sultai Delirium reanimator decks. If we generate too much traffic and pull in different directions we can break into multiple threads.
Decklists
Below are links to various decks that have achieved notable results:
J_tekt 5-0 League and JayBoneCapone Standard MOCS 6-2Actually UB Control with value The Scarab God, not reanimatorCards
Strategic Planning: Pro - Fills bin, card selection; Con - doesn't affect board by itself.
Champion of Wits: Pro - card selection and fills the bin immediately, eternalized provides card advantage; Con - slow, eternalizing into Grasp can be a disaster.
Oath of Jace: Pro - card advantage and selection while filling bin, with multiples, can add enchantment for delirium; Con - slow, doesn't affect board by itself.
Liliana, Death's Majesty: Pro - powerful, can help with delirium; Con - Expensive, Heart of Kiran.
The Scarab God: Pro - reanimates, recurs narurally, decent body for cost; Con - expensive with expensive activated ability.
Demon of Dark Schemes: Pro - reanimates, sweeps, big flyer; Con - expensive with challenging activated ability, hard to cast, no real synergistic energy sources.
Ever After: Pro - two targets!; Con - Expensive.
1 Drop
Gnarlwood Dryad: Pro - Deathtouch, above the curve with Delirium; Con - fragile without Delirium.
Narnam Renegade: Pro - Deathtouch, above the curve with revolt, always >1 toughness; Con - Revolt is hard to achieve early.
2 Drop
Gifted Aetherborn: Pro - lifelink, deathtouch, cheap, just wins races if not removed; Con - hard to cast T2.
Glint-Sleeve Siphoner: Pro - card advantage; Con - fragile. One of the biggest draws to an energy build.
Grim Flayer: Pro - Can turn itself into a 4/4 trampler that fixes our draws and enables Delirium, Eternalized with Delirium is a 6/6 trampler that provides card selection and virtual card advantage by stuffing the bin; Con - without Delirium it is undersized and dies to everything (Shock), on the draw it can be hard to get it through.
Scrapheap Scrounger: Pro - hits hard, can be recurred; Con - doesn't block.
Servant of the Conduit - great for ramping to Gearhulk, can be an energy source, but lousy for being a 2/2.
Sylvan Advocate: Pro - vigilance interacts well with Rishkar, great bang/buck late game, makes Hissing Quagmire better; Con - can't attack into Heart, Pacifist, Harvester early, don't want to block Scrounger, no benefits if swept.
3 Drop
Manglehorn: Pro - Card and tempo advantage against artifacts; Con - mopey body for the cost
Tireless Tracker: Pro - card advantage!, can get big, even better with Evolving Wilds; Con - dies easily, best as a 4-drop.
4 Drop
Gonti, Lord of Luxury: Pro - card advantage; Con - slow.
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet: Pro - lifegain, big butt, exiles recursive creatures, can take over and grow itself; Con - slow, under curve until grown, expensive activated ability, no ETB means can be tempo-negative. Best in decks with more removal.
5 Drop
Ishkanah, Grafwidow: Pro - with Delirium, can clog up the air and ground, can do direct life loss damage with ability; Con - better on defense, not worthwhile without Delirium.
6+ Drop
Noxious Gearhulk: Pro - Card advantage, lifegain, two types for Delirium, menace makes it hard to block; Con - expensive, undersized
Torrential Gearhulk: Pro - Card advantage, two types for Delirium, best with lots of instants; Con - expensive
Razaketh, the Foulblooded: Pro - Card advantage, huge, flying trample; Con - super-expensive, needs other creatures for card advantage
Fatal Push: Pro - efficient removal; Con - not good against control or 5+ drops, revolt is not necessarily easy to achieve with this deck which makes it hard to hit 3-4 drops.
Grasp of Darkness: Pro - kills most creature that you need killed like unbuffed Heart, Thing in the Ice, defeats indestructibility, only two mana (cough, kill target Hazoret, cough); Con - hard to cast.
Murder: Pro - instant, unconditional; Con - expensive, hard to cast.
Never // Return: Pro - sorcery helps Delirium, hits Planeswalkers, Return can be useful for a body and to get rid of Scrapheap Scrounger or Dread Wanderer; Con - expensive, hard to cast.
Ruinous Path: Pro - sorcery helps Delirium, hits Planeswalkers, awaken option; Con - expensive, hard to cast.
To the Slaughter: Pro - instant, can hit Planeswalkers with Delirium; Con - conditional.
Consign // Oblivion: Pro - awkward removal, card advantage, discard still valuable; Con - expensive.
Draw, Tutor, Scry
Attune with Aether: Pro - fixing, energy enabler; Con - slow and worse late game than Traverse.
Oath of Nissa: Pro - cheap, selection, gets gas often, multiples help delirium; Con - bad when it misses, durdle.
Traverse the Ulvenwald: Pro - downside is land with a bit of fixing, upside is the best creature for the situation, sorcery is good for Delirium; Con - without Delirium, a late land could be low impact.
Lifecrafter's Bestiary: Pro - Cheap card advantage, free scrys; Con - slow, doesn't affect board by itself.
Glimmer of Genius: Pro - Cheap card advantage, free scrys and energy, good with Torrential Gearhulk, good with Demon of Dark Schemes; Con - slow, doesn't affect board by itself.
Hieroglyphic Illuminations: Pro - Cheap card advantage, cycling, particularly good with Torrential Gearhulk; Con - slow, doesn't affect board by itself.
Reaction
Dispel: Pro - ; Con - .
Negate: Pro - ; Con - .
Disruption
Harsh Scrutiny: Pro - cheap, scry; Con - specialized toward decks that we generally do well against anyway.
Lay Bare the Heart: Pro - gets rid of many things you really care about, can clear path or draw counter to let you resolve what you really want to; Con - can be a bad topdeck. Often in sideboards to bring in against control and combo.
Transgress the Mind: Pro - gets rid of most things you really care about permanently, can clear path or draw counter to let you resolve what you really want to; Con - can be a bad topdeck. Often in sideboards to bring in against control and combo.
Dispossess: Pro - can hit all copies of
Marvel orTorrential Gearhulk, whether in hand or not; Con - Only hits artifacts. Tempo hit. Card disadvantage if they don't have any in hand. Can be awful to draw in multiples.Doomfall: Pro - versatile, exiles; Con - slow. Tempo hit. Can be bad topdeck.
Lost Legacy: Pro - can hit all copies, whether in hand or not; Con - Not hitting artifacts is a big drawback as you really want to be able to name Torrential Gearhulk. Tempo hit. Card disadvantage if they don't have any in hand.
Pick the Brain: Pro - general, gets all non-played copies; Con - slow, limited to cards in hand.
Specialized Hate
Natural State: Pro - Cheap, instant; Con - can't hit Metallurgic Summonings, Colossus, Panharmonicon, Marvel, ...
Crook of Condemnation: Pro - targets specifically; Con - one card per turn cycle.
Dissenter's Deliverance: Pro - instant speed, can be cycled; Con - specialized.
Natural Obsolescence: Pro - almost as good as exile; Con - specialized.
Appetite for the Unnatural: Pro - general, instant, lifegain can be surprisingly relevant; Con - slow, hate to use it on recursive creature like Scrounger.
Misc Artifacts
Aethersphere Harvester: Pro - Lifelink, Evasion, big butt, can't be targeted by unrevolted Push;Con - Requires another creature to crew.
Sweepers
Flaying Tendrils: Pro - Exiles Scrounger; Con - often few targets in the mirror.
Hazardous Conditions: Pro - synergistic; Con - slow, not powerful.
Yahenni's Expertise: Pro - Efficient; Con - Doesn't exile.
Planeswalkers
Liliana, the Last Hope: Pro - cheap for a planeswalker, can help with delirium, can gain cards in a heavy creature deck, excellent against 1-toughness creatures, ultimate can just win game; Con - Heart of Kiran, Disallow.
Nissa, Vital Force: Pro - reaches powerful ultimate quickly, can ramp or be a quick beating for opponent; Con - slow, conditional.
Ob Nixilis Reignited: Pro - unconditional removal, card draw; Con - slow, Heart of Kiran.
Blooming Marsh: Pro - Great fixing early; Con - not great topdecked.
Botanical Sanctum: Pro - Great fixing early; Con - not great topdecked.
Choked Estuary: Pro - Great fixing early; Con - not great topdecked, rotates soon.
Fetid Pools: Pro - Fixing, cycling; Con - Tapped.
Evolving Wilds: Pro - Allows better Trackers and Pushes, improves fixing; Con - comes into play tapped, awful against Thalia.
Hissing Quagmire: Pro - Good fixing, as a creature can push late damage or trade with much bigger creatures due to deathtouch; Con - Tapped initially, fragile as a creature.
Hostile Desert: Pro - Damage!; Con - colorless doesn't help fixing.
Lumbering Falls: Pro - Fixing, hexproof when activated; Con - CIPT.
Sunken Hollow: Pro - Fixing; Con - Rotates soon.
Sideboarding
more to come
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
I built the Veveil League list and it feels good in preliminary testing. I plan to take it to an FNM-level event tonight.
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
We have built a version of Athal's list and in early testing, it seems good against mono-W Eldrazi. We may take it out next Monday.
Ross Merriam takes the Veveil's 5-0 League deck out for a spin on Star City here. Spoiler alert: he did better with it than I. Seth Mansfield on tcgplayer called us out as #9 (shared with Gifts) of the ten best decks in Standard.
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
+2 Gonti, Lord of Luxury
-1 Oath of Jace
-1 Strategic Planning
Win or loose just so fun...
I've found that early opening hands with lots of interaction is ideal. Build a mana base, counter and kill some of their stuff, then once we hit turn 4 drop champion then it's off to the races with a Lilly or Scarab god.
Alot of black card rotate too
Grasp is huge, kalitas also.
In general, hand disruption is tempo-negative. We are spending our turn without helping the situation on the board while the opponent is spending their turn making the situation on the board worse for us. It works against control because they are not building a board presence, but I question its utility against aggro. Against aggro I think we want cheap removal (Fatal Push, Grasp), sweepers (Yahenni's Expertise, Flaying Tendrils), lifegain (Gifted Aetherborn, Kalitas, Noxious Gearhulk) and bodies to chump with when we can block (Champion of Wits, Catacomb Sifter, Walking Ballista).
Cheap counterspells might work in theory. Having enough to get the right one and have mana up in time seems challenging and might take too many slots, so I feel skeptical. In addition, recursive creatures beat non-exiling counterspells.
I've been focusing on "good cards", but you could experiment with "bad cards". For meta reasons, I chose to play Mono-r on Monday. In the finals I was paired against a UG brew targeted at Mono-R that had already beaten at least one Mono-R in the hands of a player who plays it every week. I played against Champion of Wits, Honored Hydra, Thriving Turtle(!), Aether Swooper, Confiscation Coup, Greenbelt Rampager with my tuned tier 1 deck and barely won. Some of it was certainly bad, but some of it was effective. Thriving Turtle? Aether Meltdown? Aether Theorist? Shielded Aether Thief? You could try something offbeat.
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
i've been playing a UB build for a few weeks. literally cannot lose to mono-red. i'm something like 16-1 vs that deck. zombies is slightly harder but i am still favored big time. the aggro matchups are the easiest.
control isn't so bad once you know how to navigate it.
GB matchup is favorable.
I feel like a slight dog to Temur Energy. Still trying to shore that one up.
Ramp decks are a bloodbath... it feels pretty hopeless...
U Merfolk U
WUBRGPeopleGRBUW
U Turbo Turns U
UB Fae BU
WBG Aristocrats GBW
you lose Kalitas (who's really there to brick wall the red decks which are pretty much dead after rotation anyway), and grasp, which hopefully will be replaced by a new removal spell.
also lose choked estuary and sunken hollow which are partially replaced by Drowned Catacombs.
U Merfolk U
WUBRGPeopleGRBUW
U Turbo Turns U
UB Fae BU
WBG Aristocrats GBW
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
this crap is so petty and irritating...
getting sick of this place...
U Merfolk U
WUBRGPeopleGRBUW
U Turbo Turns U
UB Fae BU
WBG Aristocrats GBW
2 negate
4 strategic planning
4 grasp of darkness
2 yahenni's expertise
3 liliana, death's majesty
1 never//return
4 gifted aetherborn
4 champion of wits
2 kalitas, traitor of ghet
2 the scarab god
3 noxious gearhulk
4 fetid pools
4 sunken hollow
2 hostile desert
10 swamp
2 island
1 negate
1 summary dismissal
1 fatal push
2 transgress the mind
2 doomfall
1 bontu's last reckoning
2 gonti, lord of luxery
1 yahenni's expertise
1 ob nixilis, reignited
1 never//return
2 scrapheap scrounger
U Merfolk U
WUBRGPeopleGRBUW
U Turbo Turns U
UB Fae BU
WBG Aristocrats GBW
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
I've moved up on disallow and down on most of the other counters. Being able to stop a gate to the afterlife or crook activation is a real good play as I run into lot gpg decks. Aether thief has performed well against aggro and is a great scarab god target as it is a 0/4, but not a defender. Aether meltdown is not much aside from a stall tactic, but the energy has helped to further activate demon reanimation.
I did one game cast aether on my own zombie from a never//return cast, then sac to razaoeth, then use the energy to reanimate their glorybringer. You can make some sick nasty plays but as said above, has so many options that you need to play it lots to get used to piloting it.
In watching people play versions of this online, I've seen them pitch some lands into the graveyard. This is hardly ever the play. This deck is hungry for mana. Most games go a bit long as we take a while to set up then durdle about. Having access to 8 mana is really good with scarab god out.
4x Aether Hub
4x Blooming Marsh
4x Botanical Sanctum
2x Fetid Pools
3x Swamp
3x Forest
1x Island
Creatures 23
4x Glint-Sleeve Siphoner
4x Longtusk Cub
4x Rogue Refiner
2x Champion of Wits
3x Hostage Taker
2x The Scarab God
2x Noxious Gearhulk
2x Demon of Dark Schemes
3x Liliana, Death's Majesty
Instants 9
4x Fatal Push
3x Vraska's Contempt
2x Essence Scatter
Sorcery 4
4x Attune with Aether
3x Duress
3x Harsh Scrutiny
3x Negate
3x Deathgorge Scavenger
3x Bristling Hydra
Making tweaks for the last couple of events before the new set hits. I've contemplated lots of cards. The main flex spots in the deck so far are the the essence scatter for me. I've thought about maybe supreme will to improve the approach match up game one, or just 1 more champion of wits, 1 more noxious gearhulk. Every other card feels right in the deck at this point.
Is anyone still playing this?
if journey to eternity goes in, should we replace Demon of Dark Schemes by Razaketh, the Foulblooded
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!