Serpentine Curve seems really potent in a deck that runs plenty of instant and sorcery cards. Gotta like it counts both you own in exile and in your graveyard.
Yep, definitely gonna try this as the finisher in my UR ponza list (currently running Flurry of Horns.
Foundry Inspector looks like this could make the Battered Golem/Retraction Helix more consistent. Multiples of Inspector/Etherium Sculptor can make plenty of artifacts free to combo off. Plus the extra power on the table gives the back uo plan of beating down your opponent.
Haven't really updated my decks yet, but I think this can work, with the redundancy and all. Is mono blue still the way to go? Or izzet better adding red?
Brewers will tinker with it, for sure. There's this list I saw on tappedout that uses Raze, Crack the Earth and Tremble, land destruction cards costing 2 CMC below, and I think it has a home there. But as said by many reviewers, it's not the card that boots Tron out of the top spot.
Spoiler season for Zendikar Rising has only just begun but we already have quite a few commons to talk about!
Feed the Swarm is officially the best enchantment removal in Black, without a doubt. The fact that it also destroys creatures means it will most likely find its way into maindecks in small numbers. Pharika's Libation was already good enough to see play; this is a mana cheaper and is targeted removal. The mana cost is right and the life loss should be negligible.
Anticognition is a worse Essence Scatter in the early game, but turns into a really powerful counterspell in the mid/late game. Getting 8 cards in the opponent's graveyard is not hard to do for control decks. This should also be interesting to see with Thought Scour. It should go great in Dimir tempo and control decks. Maybe Turbo Fog could find some use for this.
Akoum Hellhound is a colour-shifted Steppe Lynx, which saw fringe play in the early 2010s. It's always good to pay attention to functional reprints like these because they create redundancy for a specific strategy. Could Boros Landfall be a thing in the future?
Have I missed any other interesting cards, in your opinion? Let us know!
I immediately thought of Turbo Fog when I saw Anticognition. A two-off maybe? But your list looks tight as it is. One other card that caught my attention was Cleansing Wildfire, a strictly better Geomancer's Gambit, which can now throw a wrench on Tron's assembly plans as early as turn 2.
I basically replaced 2 copies for Stream of Thought. The initial reasoning was that sorceries are even more difficult to interact with than enchantments, which makes losing to something like Gleeful Sabotage very unlikely. Erasure was also not the best draw in the very late game, where SoT can just end the game with enough mana. In addition, Stream also prevents me from milling myself out and shuffles lost/important pieces to my game plan back into the deck, which Erasure can't do.
Ooooh, Replicate. Now I see. Correct me if I'm wrong, you only have to cast Stream of Thought once (for U), then if you have 8 extra mana, say 4UUUU, opponent mills 12 total? Me likey. Gotta get me some Tangles so I can build this.
Yeah I was really happy with the deck so far. Now that Mystic Sanctuary is banned, I have to rethink the deck once again. Too bad; I was just getting to discover this card and the current metagame and now everything is changing again! What a weird time to jump back into the game.
Thankfully, changing the deck away from Mystic Sanctuary seems simple enough.
Hey, thanks for the inputs WarMachine! Will definitely be testing them out. I just made this deck on the fly so I haven't really searched and researched some of the better cards to use. I agree with you on Lead, upping the count even by one seems super optimal. I won't be cutting Horned Kavu, though. He's essentially an Invasive Species but comes down a turn earlier (RG mana cost) and has an additional point of toughness. Imagine a turn 2 of BTE, BTE, Horned Kavu (returning an Arboreal Grazer/Young Wolf/Skyshroud Ridgeback). That's two 2/2s and a 3/4 on turn two! Yikes!
I know, I know. "Another aggro Gruul list". But hear me out. I've been goldfishing this deck and Arboreal Grazer with Burning-Tree Emissary has been explosive as hell. Some of the better turn twos I've been having include:
I haven't tinkered with the sideboard yet, but the usual culprits include the enters-the-battlefield creatures from Red and Green. Blastoderm serves as the curve topper and the "weakest" spots are the four Viashino Pyromancers and the three Orcish Hellraisers.
So with the 3 new ninjas and Faerie Seer are we about to see a UB Ninja/Faerie deck in Pauper show up at Tier 1? Kind of a state of Pauper question but really more about those 3 cards.
Check the card again. The lands need to be UNTAPPED not tapped to get the bonus counters. Plus if you have ZERO lands it means you have no lands tapped as well. You could play this versus land destruction and still get a 5/4 creature out if you had the weenies on the battlefield to satisfy Convoke.
Regarding Martyr's Soul... Say if you had four lands, can you tap them all to cast it just so you have no untapped lands (and get the two +1/+1 counter bonus)?
Yep, definitely gonna try this as the finisher in my UR ponza list (currently running Flurry of Horns.
Haven't really updated my decks yet, but I think this can work, with the redundancy and all. Is mono blue still the way to go? Or izzet better adding red?
Brewers will tinker with it, for sure. There's this list I saw on tappedout that uses Raze, Crack the Earth and Tremble, land destruction cards costing 2 CMC below, and I think it has a home there. But as said by many reviewers, it's not the card that boots Tron out of the top spot.
I immediately thought of Turbo Fog when I saw Anticognition. A two-off maybe? But your list looks tight as it is. One other card that caught my attention was Cleansing Wildfire, a strictly better Geomancer's Gambit, which can now throw a wrench on Tron's assembly plans as early as turn 2.
Two other black cards that fit in lists I'm brewing: Malakir Blood-Priest as Smitten Swordmasters 5 to 8 in a Orzhov Changeling/Knight build, and Hagra Constrictor to push damage through in my Golgari Counters list.
Ooooh, Replicate. Now I see. Correct me if I'm wrong, you only have to cast Stream of Thought once (for U), then if you have 8 extra mana, say 4UUUU, opponent mills 12 total? Me likey. Gotta get me some Tangles so I can build this.
I have to ask: Why only 2 copies of Jace's Erasure?
Turn 1: Forest, cast Arboreal Grazer, Gruul Turf, return Forest, pass.
Turn 2: Forest, Burning-Tree Emissary, Burning-Tree Emissary, Keldon Marauders, Rancor on Arboreal Grazer, attack (that's a 3/3 on turn 2!).
Turn 1: Forest, cast Arboreal Grazer, Crumbling Vestige, cast Arboreal Grazer, Gruul Turf, return Crumbling Vestige, pass.
Turn 2: 4 mana on turn 2! Do whatever you desire. Lol.
Here's the list:
4 Arboreal Grazer
4 Skyshroud Ridgeback
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Horned Kavu
4 Keldon Marauders
4 Viashino Pyromancer
3 Orcish Hellraiser
3 Blastoderm
1 Invasive Species
2 Lead the Stampede
Enchantment (7)
4 Rancor
3 Elephant Guide
Land (20)
9 Forest
4 Mountain
4 Gruul Turf
3 Crumbling Vestige
I haven't tinkered with the sideboard yet, but the usual culprits include the enters-the-battlefield creatures from Red and Green. Blastoderm serves as the curve topper and the "weakest" spots are the four Viashino Pyromancers and the three Orcish Hellraisers.
Thoughts on better replacements?
Moonblade Shinobi is definitely in. I don't know about the other two, though. A straight up mono U Faerie/Ninja seems more consistent.
Crap. How can I miss that. Thanks!