Despite that, I'm really looking forward to a midnight draft of this as my "Bachelor's Party" on Thursday night :). I'm not sure the design of "first pick the top few money rares, then design a limited-only set, then stick in some more staples and casual friendly cards" was the best call, but it should be a lot of fun to play with.
Just as a heads up, Maelstrom Pulse did make it in. It's using the GP card art (GP? I think it was GP)
yeah, shaman's 2 toughness makes it much harder to kill. if it was a 1/1, it would be a non factor. as it stands, its supremely hard to get rid of after it sticks unless we path it. but then we're behind on land, which isn't good. it'd be great to get input on the jund match up. only thing i can think of is celestial purge after boarding as well as other grave yard hate. sun lance? haha.
Why is it's two toughness a factor? We're not playing gut shots here, and the only things in the deck with one power are Blade Splicers and Haunt tokens?
Edit: Also, at the statistics for GP Lyon, if you factor in both the GP and PT:RTR, we're 47% against Jund, which is almost 50-50. I would say affinity is much harder than Jund, especially G1.
What do people think of Ensnaring Bridge to shore up the inherently weak Tron matchup? Sure, some decks are running Ulamog still, and they all typically have 4 main deck Karns, but it is the best out to Emrakul while we hold our countermagic for their Karns. This plan obviously works better with little to no artifacts main deck so that they don't board in grudges or other artifact hate. We still may lost to mindslaver locks though...
I would drop an island for a gavony. You don't need two, since some of the creatures (like strangleroot) are rather color intensive. Plus, it's really only a useful land at the 5th+ turn, and there are still things you'd rather do instead at that point. I think two is going a little overboard there.
If you want to fit another blade splicer in there, you might want to drop the ruinator. Ruinator is something you don't really want to pod into, since if they just kill it, you've received little benefit, as well as it being something you don't want to pod out of, ending your pod chain.
Personally I replaced the ruinator I was running with another splicer. I also run another acidic slime instead of the vorapede, since I like my acidic slime, play image as a copy of acidic slime, pod image -> sun titan returning phant image sun titan returning phant image sun titan returning phant image acidic slime chains that I tend to get off quite often.
I dislike the idea of dropping the emissary. It's a creature that gets a lot of value when killed, is something that control decks don't want to kill, and is a fantastic pod into/out of creature in two drops for the early game, as well as increasing your mana, which tends to be very important for this type of deck.
Since you're running the strangleroots, with a lot less white necessary than the bant pods of a few months ago, switching a pilgrim or two to a llanowar elf would be beneficial.
If you're going to be playing a bunch of aggro decks, I would recommend brindle boar. It's fantastic at helping stabilize against RDW, and can sac-block a creature and gain you life against other aggro decks.
What does everyone think of Oona, Queen of the Fey in this deck? While it's not as guaranteed of a token generator as Meloku, the exile could be useful.
Also, any thoughts on Arcanis, the Omnipotent? He draws three every turn, and is able to bounce himself. Not sure if he's worth the mana, though. Edit: Maybe Arcanis in the sideboard to replace Dralnu so that losing our graveyard games 2 and 3 becomes less crippling...
I run a combo-control Momir deck. Personally, Momir and most of my creatures have enough card advantage, and Momir already tutors so much so that this would be a dead card for me. If momir gets tucked, I have other ways to get him back (the wizardcycling guy, and Tooth and Nail, and Worldly Tutor), and if he's on the field I'm probably in a good position as soon as I cast my first green creature.
Here's a mock-up, since image is currently still down.
Edit: Kiki pod is actually Melira version.
Just as a heads up, Maelstrom Pulse did make it in. It's using the GP card art (GP? I think it was GP)
Why is it's two toughness a factor? We're not playing gut shots here, and the only things in the deck with one power are Blade Splicers and Haunt tokens?
Edit: Also, at the statistics for GP Lyon, if you factor in both the GP and PT:RTR, we're 47% against Jund, which is almost 50-50. I would say affinity is much harder than Jund, especially G1.
If you want to fit another blade splicer in there, you might want to drop the ruinator. Ruinator is something you don't really want to pod into, since if they just kill it, you've received little benefit, as well as it being something you don't want to pod out of, ending your pod chain.
Personally I replaced the ruinator I was running with another splicer. I also run another acidic slime instead of the vorapede, since I like my acidic slime, play image as a copy of acidic slime, pod image -> sun titan returning phant image sun titan returning phant image sun titan returning phant image acidic slime chains that I tend to get off quite often.
I dislike the idea of dropping the emissary. It's a creature that gets a lot of value when killed, is something that control decks don't want to kill, and is a fantastic pod into/out of creature in two drops for the early game, as well as increasing your mana, which tends to be very important for this type of deck.
Since you're running the strangleroots, with a lot less white necessary than the bant pods of a few months ago, switching a pilgrim or two to a llanowar elf would be beneficial.
If you're going to be playing a bunch of aggro decks, I would recommend brindle boar. It's fantastic at helping stabilize against RDW, and can sac-block a creature and gain you life against other aggro decks.
Also, any thoughts on Arcanis, the Omnipotent? He draws three every turn, and is able to bounce himself. Not sure if he's worth the mana, though. Edit: Maybe Arcanis in the sideboard to replace Dralnu so that losing our graveyard games 2 and 3 becomes less crippling...