The combo that's actually being played in Dream Halls combo at the moment is Conflux + Cruel Ultimatum x3 + Horde of Notions. It's better because the deck doesn't need a Conflux to win- it can just pitch-cast Cruels until the opponent falls down / until you find your Conflux (which the deck plays two of). Still a cool idea nonetheless.
Because the deck should always be able to chain draw spells anyway. Whispers only replaces a draw spell in itself (often one which draws at least two cards/filters at least three) and so it's worse. It's an awful spell to cast on its own.
Ninja of the Deep Hours is amazing in blue tempo/aggro, especially with the Thalakos Seer. If you're building this for MTGO, you just replace Flying Men with Cloud Sprite and add Spellstutter Sprite in there somewhere- also awesome with Ninja. Cunning is bad btw - sorcery speed Giant Growth?
You can remand Dark Ritual, but from the way you described it L_erik, you couldn't in that situation.
You play Dark Ritual with nothing on the stack. You pass priority- then your opponent has priority. If they choose to play a counterspell, you get priority again. Since you now have priority, you can play your Remand- you can either target the Counterspell or your own Dark Ritual.
However, if your opponent doesn't play anything and instead passes priority, then the last spell on the stack resolves (the last spell resolves when all players have passed priority). In this case, your Remand would be too late.
If you want to Remand your Ritual, you have to do it while you still have priority. The way to do this is by saying 'I play Dark Ritual, but without passing priority I am going to play Remand targeting the Dark Ritual' or something along those lines. Once you have passed priority, your opponent has the final say on whether the spell resolves or not- if they pass priority, you can't then say 'Oh wait, I want to Remand Ritual' because you missed your opportunity to do that when you had priority.
Hope this clears some things up and is not too confusing.
Who was the guy who predicted that Toast would fall to a point where zero Toast decks make the Worlds Top 8? Well, nice work, guy... Interesting that he plays only the singleton Cruel, though, but his list seems a bit unorthodox anyway.
The wording 'Creature cards in your hand have morph' would seem to work- that's if you want them to not be able to turn face-up themselves. Having morph, but a null morph cost, would mean the face-down creature would be unable to turn itself face up. Change 'creature cards' to whatever you need, of course.
p1: Executioner's Capsule - Strongest card in the pack, largely non-commital.
p2: Fleshbag Marauder - Dude's an absolute champion; works with any unearth dudes and deals with Deft Duelists if you're aggro. Solid body regardless.
p3: Agony Warp- Tempted to take Iguanar here, but hopefully by shipping both Iggy and Bloodpyre (with Savage Lands shipped p1) we can send a signal into red, and try and move into Esper (U/B, shipping red, must be). Really good pack though- would love to take Dragger.
p4: Oblivion Ring- Simple pick. Heavy White signal.
p5: Welkin Guide- solid creature, best card in pack- you can't take Rakeclaw after p1-p3 being black cards.
p6: Hardest decision of the draft. Taking Iguanar is the most powerful pick there, but obviously the worst signal. I'd just take Obelisk of Esper here (23rd card) to reinforce your signal. There's an argument to just hatedrafting Iggy, but I don't think it's worth it.
p7: Call to Heel- so solid, reaping the rewards.
p8: Resounding Wave- same thing; it's a solid trick.
My top p1p1s, at rare- if you count mythics, Elspeth goes #2 and nothing else makes the top 5.
1: Flameblast Dragon - dear god the dude's insane. It's really like Oona- either a game-ender (aggro with Faeries/Fireball to the face) or a stabiliser... then a game-ender (control with Faeries/Fireball dudes).
2: Sigil of Distinction - you play it, suit up your Cylian Elf, make it 6/6 or bigger- they have to make bad, bad trades to deal with it while you're other fat beats them down. Next turn, you just put it on another dude... and do it again.
3: Battlegrace Angel- This card swings games so fast. Not only is it a Serra on defense, it doesn't even need to attack for ridiculous lifegain bonuses- any other creature does it almost as well.
4: Caldera Hellion- Firespout was good, Firespout on legs is better. Say more?
5: Vein Drinker- Because Sengir wasn't good enough, now it's Sengir that, like Flameblast Dragon, doesn't even need to get into combat with your creatures to pick them off. Coupled with an already solid 4/4 Vampire, you can see why the dude's the nut high.
Being of Devotion :symw::symw::symw::symw::symw::symw:
Creature- Spirit
Flying Chroma - Being of Devotion's power and toughness are each equal to the number of white mana symbols in the mana costs of permanents you control.
*/*
This post is a bit tangential, but if you're in Australia, don't even bother with the 'local' eBay stores. What happens is since they often don't have a real-life store, or their store is often very small/not Magic focused (and so they use eBay to reach a larger playerbase), the consumer gets shafted- the eBay dealers have to buy product off eBay or another site, since some can't even get wholesale (note that SCG doesn't even ship to Australia, so that's off), crack those packs, and sell from there. Since the shipping costs are often absurdly high to Australia, eBay sellers mark up their prices even more than the already marked up 'US dealer, ie SCG/bigfireball/trollandtoad' prices.
A far better option is to buy from players on eBay, either internationally or locally- although with the US dollar plummeting, it's often cheaper/faster to buy local, although the competition isn't as high (quick, easy, cheap). Another alternative is to buy from your local large store. These are the ones with drafts/FNM/weekend events, and usually have decent prices as they can move enough stock that they don't need to gouge their clientele. If you're in a capital city, it's guaranteed you'll have a store- check http://www.mtgparadise.com/forums/, the official Australian Magic forum, for locations of stores/announcements- you'll be able to pick up good deals.
You play Dark Ritual with nothing on the stack. You pass priority- then your opponent has priority. If they choose to play a counterspell, you get priority again. Since you now have priority, you can play your Remand- you can either target the Counterspell or your own Dark Ritual.
However, if your opponent doesn't play anything and instead passes priority, then the last spell on the stack resolves (the last spell resolves when all players have passed priority). In this case, your Remand would be too late.
If you want to Remand your Ritual, you have to do it while you still have priority. The way to do this is by saying 'I play Dark Ritual, but without passing priority I am going to play Remand targeting the Dark Ritual' or something along those lines. Once you have passed priority, your opponent has the final say on whether the spell resolves or not- if they pass priority, you can't then say 'Oh wait, I want to Remand Ritual' because you missed your opportunity to do that when you had priority.
Hope this clears some things up and is not too confusing.
EDIT: Doublenathed.
p2: Fleshbag Marauder - Dude's an absolute champion; works with any unearth dudes and deals with Deft Duelists if you're aggro. Solid body regardless.
p3: Agony Warp- Tempted to take Iguanar here, but hopefully by shipping both Iggy and Bloodpyre (with Savage Lands shipped p1) we can send a signal into red, and try and move into Esper (U/B, shipping red, must be). Really good pack though- would love to take Dragger.
p4: Oblivion Ring- Simple pick. Heavy White signal.
p5: Welkin Guide- solid creature, best card in pack- you can't take Rakeclaw after p1-p3 being black cards.
p6: Hardest decision of the draft. Taking Iguanar is the most powerful pick there, but obviously the worst signal. I'd just take Obelisk of Esper here (23rd card) to reinforce your signal. There's an argument to just hatedrafting Iggy, but I don't think it's worth it.
p7: Call to Heel- so solid, reaping the rewards.
p8: Resounding Wave- same thing; it's a solid trick.
1: Flameblast Dragon - dear god the dude's insane. It's really like Oona- either a game-ender (aggro with Faeries/Fireball to the face) or a stabiliser... then a game-ender (control with Faeries/Fireball dudes).
2: Sigil of Distinction - you play it, suit up your Cylian Elf, make it 6/6 or bigger- they have to make bad, bad trades to deal with it while you're other fat beats them down. Next turn, you just put it on another dude... and do it again.
3: Battlegrace Angel- This card swings games so fast. Not only is it a Serra on defense, it doesn't even need to attack for ridiculous lifegain bonuses- any other creature does it almost as well.
4: Caldera Hellion- Firespout was good, Firespout on legs is better. Say more?
5: Vein Drinker- Because Sengir wasn't good enough, now it's Sengir that, like Flameblast Dragon, doesn't even need to get into combat with your creatures to pick them off. Coupled with an already solid 4/4 Vampire, you can see why the dude's the nut high.
Creature- Spirit
Flying
Chroma - Being of Devotion's power and toughness are each equal to the number of white mana symbols in the mana costs of permanents you control.
*/*
Next: Imperious Perfect
A far better option is to buy from players on eBay, either internationally or locally- although with the US dollar plummeting, it's often cheaper/faster to buy local, although the competition isn't as high (quick, easy, cheap). Another alternative is to buy from your local large store. These are the ones with drafts/FNM/weekend events, and usually have decent prices as they can move enough stock that they don't need to gouge their clientele. If you're in a capital city, it's guaranteed you'll have a store- check http://www.mtgparadise.com/forums/, the official Australian Magic forum, for locations of stores/announcements- you'll be able to pick up good deals.