Blue basically has junk rares when it comes to constructed in this set (barring slivers.dec and possibly Quicken - edit - and tidebinder mage), so it really wouldn't have hurt to print Control Magic instead of this. It still probably wouldn't have seen play in Standard, but it would have reflected that rares are allowed to be strictly better than uncommons. That would have made limited players happy, because mind control effects wouldn't show up in most games, and it would have left people who open packs other than when they're playing limited disappointed a little bit less often. Plus, who would it hurt to see a card that dates back to Alpha printed in the core set on Magic's 20th anniversary?
I can understand being happy that they're adjusting the rarity of cards to help out limited, but more junk rares doesn't really help the game. They can't all be winners, but they can't all be losers, either.
How about Hidden Strings? You can let the first resolve and then exile the ciphered copies with Nivmagus Elemental - note that ciphered spells are cast, so they will pump Quirion Dryad and Nivix Cyclops. Maybe fewer copies of Mizzium Skin for a couple? The untapping effect is great for flashing back Think Twice in the middle of combat, too. Izzet Charm is great in this style deck too, you could move Pillar or Spear to the sideboard to make room for it, depending on what you expect to go up against. Also, Snapcaster Mage is great for casting off of Hidden Strings (works with sorceries too, just cast them second main) but not with Nivmagus Elemental. Out of those suggestions Izzet Charm is probably the most essential.
I'm not sure that this deck is fast enough to operate as a strict combo deck with all the taplands. Even with all the shocks and checklands, we're going to want a way to interact with our opponent besides Mizzium Skin. Simic Charm and Rapid Hybridization are great for this - both get problem creatures out of the way, charm doubles as pump, and turning any of our creatures besides Nivix Cyclops into a frog lizard is a decent combat trick. The main advantage of Mizzium Skin is that it can be cast for one mana, so we might run three skin three charm, or some spread like that.
Wild Defiance doesn't really belong in this deck. In last season's infect deck, it had a place because it was effectively giving your creatures +6/+3 per spell, and you could use it the turn you cast it via Phyrexian spells like Mutagenic Growth. It makes it faster to go off with Nivix Cyclops, but the possibility of T3 Cyclops T4 Defiance, Giant Growth/Mizzium Skin/Artful Dodge is not worth four slots. I also question if you need Farseek, but I haven't seen the mana base at work so it may be necessary. Either way, we shouldn't let the inclusion of Farseek coax us into playing spells like Armed // Dangerous for the potential of fusing them. In this deck we should treat the card as just Armed most of the time, and decide based on that.
I feel like the deck needs a secondary strategy besides Cyclops wins. The two budget options are Runechanter's Pike and Nivmagus Elemental. If we take the former path, we're going to want to play a full set of Thought Scour and keep all the copies of Invisible Stalker as pikebearers. With that build we could probably drop the number of copies of Mizzium Skin and/or Simic Charm since we have a win condition that protects itself (we'll still want Simic Charm to protect the pike), allowing us to bring in some Izzet Charm since we have graveyard synergy. Desperate Ravings is also an option, but I'm not sure if it's really suited.
If we take the latter path, we're going to want flashback and cipher. Think Twice is predictable but Desperate Ravings is more powerful; it's a choice of individual playstyle. For the cipher spells, Hands of Binding is probably the best for its huge tempo swing and option of a pseudo removal effect, but Hidden Strings is nearly as good since it lets you play more spells after you cast it. Hidden Strings into Artful Dodge, Artful Dodge gives a Nivix Cyclops +9 power and costs two mana. Ciphered, (without exiling the copy for Nivmagus Elemental) it keeps mana up to protect your creatures after you tap out to pump them. In this build, Invisible Stalker is just there to carry cipher spells and give you an extra bit of reach with Phytoburst or Giant Growth. Speaking of, Phytoburst becomes more questionable in this build, since playing cards at instant speed gives you more options as you grow your elemental.
In either build, Quirion Dryad seems a solid alternative to Drakewing Krasis. Like Nivix Cyclops, she grows when you cast things, so she doesn't clash with Nivmagus Elemental. She's also a great body to wield the pike, though that card unfortunately doesn't pump her. I could see this deck running Nivmagus Elemental maindeck with pike in the sideboard, or the other way around.
Boros Reckoner is another good reason to bring Rapid Hybridization along. The only colors that have trouble answering him for three mana or less are red and green, and the cards that get rid of him in the other three colors are often worth bringing along for solving other problems anyway. I can see him being pretty devastating against aggro decks, though.
Naming "Mutant" with Cavern of Souls does not do anything special with Master Biomancer. His effect states that creatures enter the battlefield as mutants; it does not affect creature spells on the stack.
I really want to try this deck with Arbor Elf and Verdant Haven. I feel like I'm not getting full mileage outof Farseek without Snapcaster Mage, but I'm not sure what to cut for him.
How do people feel about implementing the Nightshade Peddler + Izzet Staticaster combo with a transformational sideboard?
I think there's an argument to be made that Zealous Conscripts as good in this deck than Wolfir Silverheart, depending on your overall strategy. In terms of what the card does the turn you play it, Conscripts is certainly better. Without Master Biomancer or another creature in play, Silverheart gives you nothing that turn and Conscripts gives you at least 4 power attacking, while your opponent has their best blocker (or planeswalker) taken and set upon them. With another creature in play, you get an extra four power with Silverheart, but unless that creature's Thundermaw Hellkite or you prevent your attacking creature from dying with the extra four toughness, it's not as good as an extra attacker. With Biomancer, Silverheart does make for some powerful plays the next turn, but Zealous conscripts gives you (at least) an extra six damage that turn instead of Silverheart's four.
Basically Silverheart's really good for generating board advantage in the long term, while Conscripts makes for blowouts and uses Biomancer's ability more quickly than Silverheart does. Seems like both cards are worth keeping in the 75, with Silverheart probably staying in the maindeck (depending on the meta) and Conscripts being sided in rounds where you're aiming for a swingy blowout win and against decks with permanents especially worth stealing.
Skymark Roc is way too good. The only thing that can take him out without at least trading is Skyline Predator (flashed in after he's declared an attacker), and he constantly bounces most of the flyers at common and uncommon. Having two of them in my sealed pool pretty much carried me to second place yesterday.
I think Nivmagus Elemental definitely has a role to play in this kind of deck. You can cast an instant or sorcery, triggering Talrand, Sky Summoner and/or Guttersnipe, then exile it to beef up the elemental.
Presumably with a deck like this we're wanting to get out Delver of Secrets or Nivmagus Elemental (depending on build; it would be undesirable to run both maindeck) on turn one, cast Augur of Bolas or leave up counterspell mana on turn two, then cast a cantrip (and exile it if we've got Nivmagus Elemental on the battlefield) if we don't need the counter, do the same on turn three, and then get out a Guttersnipe on turn four and blast with some one mana instant or sorcery (or the same with Talrand, a turn later).
Do Dual Casting and other copy effects copy overload spells properly? If it is, spells like Electrickery might be useful against certain decks. It already synergizes with Nivmagus Elemental (but not Guttersnipe or Talrand) and draw spells like Think Twice and Thought Scour, so a copy effect may be worth including, but Electrickery is still no Whipflare. I think this deck needs a cheaper sweeper than Mizzium Mortars to help it stabilize.
Without Delver the one-drop beater only evades humans, but vapor snag (and incinerate) are handy for making sure Noble starts growing on turn 2. Some people diss the Hounds, but at worst they're either sitting there intimidating people potential attackers in the midgame or eating two removal spells. They and the Blademasters make very good use of whichever swords you side in. Devils go out against decks that use lifegain and big creatures, Phoenixes and Stalkers come in against removal-heavy decks (come to think of it, Devils side out against those too).
I'm sorta iffy on Incinerate, but Brimstone Volley is a necessity; it's won me several games I'd otherwise have lost.
It's definitely nowhere near a tier 1 deck, and there are some board states where you just have to fold (Thragtusk...), but I've enjoyed playing it quite a bit the past few days.
I'm curious what input people have on this deck (I have a special file for the ilk of "Put back the delvers, take out the red, and put in white"), but mostly I'm interested to see what other UR decks people have built in this standard environment besides Calcano delver (and the 19-land variation made after m13 came out). Bonus points if you use interesting rares that are powerful, but not used because of the meta.
Have you actually read the article that you are linking to? If anything it points towards Jace *not* being UR. >.<
For this topic it doesn't matter if the new Jace card is actually UR; he's working with the Izzet League, and I think we can all agree that it'd be unreasonable to expect both RTR planeswalkers to be associated with the same guild.
If there's a UR planeswalker, I think it will be Jace. It doesn't make sense for both the planeswalkers in RTR to be associated with Izzet, and Ral Zarek is likely on a playmat for RTR Game Day, so he's likely to be in the first set. [ http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=441608 ] Gotta agree with the legendary creature idea.
Alternate art black bordered Blast From the Past. It'd go great in Tibalt's deck.
Also probably Conflagrate (lets you discard cards on flashback), Firebolt, maybe Flaming Gambit, Lightning Surge, and hopefully Volley of Boulders, and Volcanic Spray as an auto-include if it's to be used against Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. Hopefully Reckless Wurm on the madness side. As much as I want the Tibalt deck to be UR, I'd be surprised if they did two UR duel decks in a row.
Of course, it will probably have some creatures, too. Scourge Devil, Charmbreaker Devils?
I can understand being happy that they're adjusting the rarity of cards to help out limited, but more junk rares doesn't really help the game. They can't all be winners, but they can't all be losers, either.
Wild Defiance doesn't really belong in this deck. In last season's infect deck, it had a place because it was effectively giving your creatures +6/+3 per spell, and you could use it the turn you cast it via Phyrexian spells like Mutagenic Growth. It makes it faster to go off with Nivix Cyclops, but the possibility of T3 Cyclops T4 Defiance, Giant Growth/Mizzium Skin/Artful Dodge is not worth four slots. I also question if you need Farseek, but I haven't seen the mana base at work so it may be necessary. Either way, we shouldn't let the inclusion of Farseek coax us into playing spells like Armed // Dangerous for the potential of fusing them. In this deck we should treat the card as just Armed most of the time, and decide based on that.
I feel like the deck needs a secondary strategy besides Cyclops wins. The two budget options are Runechanter's Pike and Nivmagus Elemental. If we take the former path, we're going to want to play a full set of Thought Scour and keep all the copies of Invisible Stalker as pikebearers. With that build we could probably drop the number of copies of Mizzium Skin and/or Simic Charm since we have a win condition that protects itself (we'll still want Simic Charm to protect the pike), allowing us to bring in some Izzet Charm since we have graveyard synergy. Desperate Ravings is also an option, but I'm not sure if it's really suited.
If we take the latter path, we're going to want flashback and cipher. Think Twice is predictable but Desperate Ravings is more powerful; it's a choice of individual playstyle. For the cipher spells, Hands of Binding is probably the best for its huge tempo swing and option of a pseudo removal effect, but Hidden Strings is nearly as good since it lets you play more spells after you cast it. Hidden Strings into Artful Dodge, Artful Dodge gives a Nivix Cyclops +9 power and costs two mana. Ciphered, (without exiling the copy for Nivmagus Elemental) it keeps mana up to protect your creatures after you tap out to pump them. In this build, Invisible Stalker is just there to carry cipher spells and give you an extra bit of reach with Phytoburst or Giant Growth. Speaking of, Phytoburst becomes more questionable in this build, since playing cards at instant speed gives you more options as you grow your elemental.
In either build, Quirion Dryad seems a solid alternative to Drakewing Krasis. Like Nivix Cyclops, she grows when you cast things, so she doesn't clash with Nivmagus Elemental. She's also a great body to wield the pike, though that card unfortunately doesn't pump her. I could see this deck running Nivmagus Elemental maindeck with pike in the sideboard, or the other way around.
I really want to try this deck with Arbor Elf and Verdant Haven. I feel like I'm not getting full mileage outof Farseek without Snapcaster Mage, but I'm not sure what to cut for him.
How do people feel about implementing the Nightshade Peddler + Izzet Staticaster combo with a transformational sideboard?
Basically Silverheart's really good for generating board advantage in the long term, while Conscripts makes for blowouts and uses Biomancer's ability more quickly than Silverheart does. Seems like both cards are worth keeping in the 75, with Silverheart probably staying in the maindeck (depending on the meta) and Conscripts being sided in rounds where you're aiming for a swingy blowout win and against decks with permanents especially worth stealing.
Presumably with a deck like this we're wanting to get out Delver of Secrets or Nivmagus Elemental (depending on build; it would be undesirable to run both maindeck) on turn one, cast Augur of Bolas or leave up counterspell mana on turn two, then cast a cantrip (and exile it if we've got Nivmagus Elemental on the battlefield) if we don't need the counter, do the same on turn three, and then get out a Guttersnipe on turn four and blast with some one mana instant or sorcery (or the same with Talrand, a turn later).
Do Dual Casting and other copy effects copy overload spells properly? If it is, spells like Electrickery might be useful against certain decks. It already synergizes with Nivmagus Elemental (but not Guttersnipe or Talrand) and draw spells like Think Twice and Thought Scour, so a copy effect may be worth including, but Electrickery is still no Whipflare. I think this deck needs a cheaper sweeper than Mizzium Mortars to help it stabilize.
4 Stromkirk Noble
3 Stormblood Berserker
3 Markov Blademaster
2 Hound of Griselbrand
2 Vexing Devil
4 Snapcaster Mage
Tempo, Burn, and Cantrips (22)
4 Mana Leak
4 Vapor Snag
2 Incinerate
2 Brimstone Volley
2 Bonfire of the Damned
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Ponder
7 Island
9 Mountain
4 Sulfur Falls
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Sword of Body and Mind
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of War and Peace
3 Chandra's Phoenix
3 Invisible Stalker
1 Koth of the Hammer
2 Devil's Play
1 Desolate Lighthouse
Without Delver the one-drop beater only evades humans, but vapor snag (and incinerate) are handy for making sure Noble starts growing on turn 2. Some people diss the Hounds, but at worst they're either sitting there intimidating people potential attackers in the midgame or eating two removal spells. They and the Blademasters make very good use of whichever swords you side in. Devils go out against decks that use lifegain and big creatures, Phoenixes and Stalkers come in against removal-heavy decks (come to think of it, Devils side out against those too).
I'm sorta iffy on Incinerate, but Brimstone Volley is a necessity; it's won me several games I'd otherwise have lost.
It's definitely nowhere near a tier 1 deck, and there are some board states where you just have to fold (Thragtusk...), but I've enjoyed playing it quite a bit the past few days.
I'm curious what input people have on this deck (I have a special file for the ilk of "Put back the delvers, take out the red, and put in white"), but mostly I'm interested to see what other UR decks people have built in this standard environment besides Calcano delver (and the 19-land variation made after m13 came out). Bonus points if you use interesting rares that are powerful, but not used because of the meta.
For this topic it doesn't matter if the new Jace card is actually UR; he's working with the Izzet League, and I think we can all agree that it'd be unreasonable to expect both RTR planeswalkers to be associated with the same guild.
If there's a UR planeswalker, I think it will be Jace. It doesn't make sense for both the planeswalkers in RTR to be associated with Izzet, and Ral Zarek is likely on a playmat for RTR Game Day, so he's likely to be in the first set. [ http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=441608 ] Gotta agree with the legendary creature idea.
Also probably Conflagrate (lets you discard cards on flashback), Firebolt, maybe Flaming Gambit, Lightning Surge, and hopefully Volley of Boulders, and Volcanic Spray as an auto-include if it's to be used against Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. Hopefully Reckless Wurm on the madness side. As much as I want the Tibalt deck to be UR, I'd be surprised if they did two UR duel decks in a row.
Of course, it will probably have some creatures, too. Scourge Devil, Charmbreaker Devils?
Just wait until we go back to Alara!