So after playing with an arbiter version over the past few days, I have to say you guys summed it up perfectly. Some games I was rofling so hard watching mono red cast a bolt for 5 mana, when at other times I simply was dead and had nothing to draw to. At the very least I've come to the conclusion that Wingmare can be an absolute beating given the right meta, but the list is so tight these days I find it really tough to justify any copies in the 75.
Howdy all, looking to grind the legacy challenge events at the upcoming GP DC. I have a fairly stock list, but I have also been toying around with a list that runs 4 leonin arbiter and 4 Wingmare. Anyone in here have any experience with such builds?
To be honest, I don't like the direction some people are trying to force the deck into - the new recruiter is an incredible addition to the deck in terms of consistency, selection and whatever else. Now building a moxen-tomb-whatever glass cannon shell around it alá Soldier Stompy will probably result in super awkward hands like tomb, mother, sword and whatever, resulting in alot more mulligans.
I will try out 3 recruiters and 1 sanctum prelate MD, in a more toolbox-like shell, as suggesed earlier.
I cannot agree with you more.
It's like everyone got really good at grilling delicious ribs. Low and slow over mesquite. Then suddenly this new toy called the microwave comes out and everyone wants to start nuking their precious racks of ribs. We don't need to reinvent the wheel here guys...
Now, if your opponent is light on mana, you can activate Vial and if they do not cast the card in response to the activation of Vial, your Thalia will resolve and make all subsequent non-creature spells cost two more.
You have to be careful here as it can be confusing to newer players. You need priority if you are going to activate vial on your opponent's turn. You don't get priority from land drops, so you'll need to make sure and activate vial during the upkeep, response to fetch, etc. I know you know this redtwister but the way it was worded sounded like it could cause confusion, and the main point to take away from your post is that an opponent can only respond to the vial trigger and not the creature being put into play. Cheers!
Is Phyrexian Revoker good enough to keep in the deck? Yes, there are matches it is very good in, but there are also matches it is very bad in. In the matches where it is good, it is very good (Sneak and Show, Elves, Reanimator, the mirror, BUG for Shaman and Liliana, Imperial Painter, Maverick, 12 Post, MUD, Tezzerator, Enchantress, Miracles, did I miss any?), wouldn't Pithing Needle usually be better? I can't vial it in, but I can play it turn 1.
First off let me say I'm a huge fan of revoker and very bias in my answer to keep his number in the deck high(3-4).
You named a bunch of matchups where revoker shines, I would like to point out that out of those matchups a lot of the top decks in the format are included. Shardless, sneak and show and miracles are everywhere and I love having the trusty horror in these spots.
I would argue that what revoker loses against lands and delver he more than makes up for against the rest of the field, specifically the top decks of the format.
The second thing I want to.touch on is needle vs revoker. I think being able to beat down and vial in outweighs the ability to land turn 1. Especially main deck, if you have a needle I highly doubt you are casting it turn 1, you are much more likely to wait until you have more info on what you opponent is up to.
How many times have you won by vialing in a revoker in response to something vs how many games you have won by casting a needle turn 1? I'm awful at writing out my thoughts on my phone, but I can't stress enough how important revoker is to the non green builds.
So I have been constantly jamming games online with what I have nicknamed "stomp the moon." It's stompy splashing blood moon in the main. Long story short I'm loving my list and don't know if I am just a huge luck sack or if the deck is amazing. I would estimate that I have won about 32-34 of the last 40 games I've played.
G1 it is very easy to mask the red splash. There is alot of room to catch opponents completely off guard by saving the fetch til the turn you slam an impactful red card.
Blood moon drastically improves a few of our worst matchups and will hose a lot of decks that could but don't fetch basics g1.
Vines as everyone here knows is amazing. It has so many applications it would take pages to list them all. I have recently countered wolf run activations, slayers strongholds and resto flickers for great value and surprise, seriously vines is THE green stifle/dispel/counterspell.
I have been so impressed with bow of nylea, it single handedly blows out a bunch of matchups. Great in grindy matchups, really helps kill pesky flyers like delver, clique, and flickerwisps, and is just game if resolved and let sit on the table vs burn.
Dungrove is a boss, and if I were to cut the blood moons I would add two more of him right away. This is a must counter for blue decks and great against jund if it can stick without dying to liliana.
Anyway just thought I'd share my impure shameful splash thoughts. Questions, comments and heretical punishment welcome!
I've been loving the 3/3 split of revoker/avenger. At the same time I've really been impressed with revoker and think it may be time to go back to 4. It has application in nearly every matchup and hoses certain strategies.
I just want to shout out a post of thanks to all of you who posted tourney reports over the weekend. It gave me a lot to think about and I thoroughly enjoyed the insights. Out of all the threads I have visited on this site I am consistently impressed by the quality of posts here and the thoughtful, friendly nature of everyone in here. <3 #bestthreadonmtgs
Having blood moon with fetches and dungrove elder seems like a nonbo.
Ya I can agree that there will be some awkward situations. For the most part I will be able to avoid them with how I sequence my land drops and when/if I drop blood moon. My meta is infested with Tron and Amulet so I will def main board the hate.
Also let me know how good Nylea is, she seems way too expensive and not going to turn up with all the cheap removal in Modern.
Not sure I totally understand what you are saying here. She is obviously weak to path, which our whole deck is. She gets turned on by a couple of dudes and her passive effect is actually quite relevant imo.
@everyone Random thought: I went to a SCG States in Maryland recently and the room was absolutely filled with Amulet and Tron. I took Grixis Twin and as I played 4 of the seven rounds vs Tron and Amulet and saw even more at the top tables, I wish I had sleeved up the little cat that could. Arbiter would have crushed that tourney, and in connection with that thought I just feel DnT is a very nice choice for the meta right now in general.
Haven't posted in this thread for awhile, I've since been playing grixis twin with more success, but my heart still yearns to kill people with 4/4 flying lands and cast revelation for large amounts of mana. After looking through the recent pages I would settle on a list something like this:
I would love to squeeze a shadow of doubt into the main somewhere but I am pretty in love with the main deck. I think the added pain from the manabase to play souls is totally worth it. In fact it is mostly remedied by not playing any colorless lands. Anyone test the souls version lately? Thoughts?
As promised, here is the tourney report from SCG States in Maryland yesterday. 111 players meant 7 rounds and then a cut to top 8. For reference here is the list I played:
Right before the tournament I moved my Vendilion Clique from the main to the SB and moved one Dispel as I anticipated to play against burn and grixis multiple times. Boy was I wrong!
Matches:
Round 1: Kyle with G/R Tron 1-1-1
G1 was pretty straight forward. I remanded him into oblivion and then comboed off. G2 was fairly complex, I made a couple of misplays by not playing around his oblivion stone better. I also missed a key turn where I could have tapped his emrakul to buy me an extra turn. G3 we only had about 5 minutes to play, he was new to modern but a good player so the turns took longer than usual. An unfortunate draw here as I felt the matchup was heavily in my favor. Nerves, some rust and time got the better of me.
Record: 0-0-1
Round 2: Chris with Mono U Tron 0-2
I was still fairly in a daze from the last round and I really played this match terribly. G1 was close and it came down to a crucial turn where I could combo off through 2 counter spells and he had three cards in hand and they were all counters. I was pretty crushed after that play and G2 I just went through the motions and didn't think about my sequencing and slowly died. I think this matchup is still in our favor, but my lack of experience really showed here.
Record: 0-1-1
Round 3: Milton with U/R Twin? 2-1
G1 I thought he was on tarmotwin due to his multiple stomping grounds. I also saw a couple of ghost quarters which confused me. G1 ended in a counter war on his end step that left him tapped out and me with an exarch to combo for the win. G2 I considered bringing in blood moon but decided against it. I am glad I did because it turns out his deck was closer to blue moon with a twin package than anything else. He blood mooned me at a critical point and combo finished for the win. G3 was fairly grindy, but I was able to win another counter war for the win with the combo. He assumed I had boarded all but one of my splinter twins out, when in reality I actually only boarded one out. So I was able to fight him on the axis he wasn't ready for.
Record: 1-1-1
Round 4: Justin with Lantern Control 2-0
I finally felt free of the nerves and felt like I was shaking off the rust and my opponent casts turn 1 codex shredder... Luckily I was well prepared for this matchup and knew what to fight over. G1 I remanded his bridge 2 times thanks to snapcaster and then when he finally resolved it and was tapped out, he still had one card in hand which allowed me to combo with an exarch. G2 he landed t1 lantern and t2 bell and inquisition of kozilek. He had effectively stopped me from doing anything but he couldn't find a bridge, and I had a string of top cards that caused him to mill me three times in a row and still pop his lantern to stop me from drawing the combo to kill him. We were both top decking for awhile and eventually I was able to cast tasigur and beat him to death.
Record: 2-1-1
Round 5: Carl with Mardu Tokens 0-2
This matchup was a grind fest. In G1 we cast probably 9 kolaghan's commands between us and it came down to him being at 3 life with two dark confidants in play and he was able to burn me out before he died to his confidant triggers. G2 was more of the same but Jace, Architect of Thought completely shut him down for multiple turns. He was then able to get a monastery mentor online and nickel and dime the jace off of the ultimate. I hit a string of 4 lands in a row and no help off the jace either. If I had hit an anger of the gods in time I would have had a clean board free of bobs, young pyros, mentors and souls tokens and me with a jace vs an empty board and empty handed opponent, but alas the gods did not favor me with their anger.
Record: 2-2-1
Round 6: Jake with Amulet 2-1
G1 I got mercilessly comboed out on turn 2. I literally died before I could cast a single spell. G2 he started off slower, on turn three he cast summoners pact for Azusa which I killed on the end step. I untapped and cast blood moon to lock him off green and he died to his pact in the upkeep. G3 he had a slow start as well and he cast Azusa turn 3 which I remanded. The next turn he didn't play a land or recast the Azusa and instead he went for an ancient stirrings. I paused and then negated it. I usually wouldn't negate a stirrings but his sequencing seemed odd to me and I figured he was searching for lands. I was right, he didn't play a land and passed. He tried for another stirrings the next turn which I snap negated and he failed to play another land again. I landed tasigur then next turn and a few turns later he was dead. He told me that all he needed was any land to combo off, so my gut decision paid off.
Record: 3-2-1
Round 7: Thomas with Amulet 2-0
This guy was a really skilled pilot of the deck, but I was faster G1 and comboed him out. G2 was strange, he was on a mull to 5, I kept a sketchy hand that had two islands and a spell snare and some other random stuff. I was focused on simply stopping summer bloom at all costs. He cast a seal of primordium and I neglected to snare it. I drew a few snaps and pestermites which I just dropped into play for no value and to get a clock going. He was ready to go off and I was able to sneak in another snap and another pestermite to get him down to 2 and kolaghan's command him for lethal.
Final Record: 4-2-1
My record earned me 26th place out of 111. All in all I felt like I had a good tournament, I hadn't played live magic since July and hadn't played competitively since April. I feel if I had been less nervous and better prepared for the early rounds I could have made a deeper run.
I have been seeing a lot of lists with maindeck dispels and I really wish it had been a vendilion clique instead. It is honestly a meta call, but I really wish I hadn't dropped the clique from the main before the tourney as I boarded it in every match except for mardu tokens.
MVP:spell snare - This card did wonders for me, it hit an important spell in nearly every single game I played. It was great early and late and especially on the draw. I won't leave home without at least two of these in the maindeck.
MIA:Tasigur, the golden fang - I have him in the main for a reason! Incredible pressure and a much needed alternate plan of attack when you can't combo or slowly grind. In the few games he did show up he won the game. I just wish I had drawn him more!
Sideboard thoughts: I am pleasantly surprised with rakdos charm. I have it there specifically for the lantern deck and it was relevant in the game I played against it, as I was able to exile his yard that had a couple of bridges that he had self milled and was trying to get back with academy ruins. The destroy artifact text is also great in that matchup.
Grave Titan came in once or twice and I never drew him so I really can't say whether it is good or not. I'm sure if I had played vs more grixis or jund it would have been house, but I still need to test it more.
Manabase: It is FLAWLESS! I am very pleased with the exact 23 lands I am playing and if you haven't tried drowned catacomb yet, it is great. Much much better than darkslick shores.
Going forward: I like having access to three kolaghan's command but I think the slot in the board could be used for something else. The list below is what I am going to be playing for the near future.
The dispels are still very good, but I think it takes a very good read on the meta to justify playing them main. Negate was phenomenal, in fact I would say it was better in general than dispel but I'm not sure what I would cut in the board to make room for a second copy.
Thanks for reading, I truly love the play style of this deck. With more confidence and practice I can see this being a tool that can adapt and crush any meta. Please if you have any questions about my card choices feel free to ask and I would love to hear your suggestions and advice as well.
@dunpeal2064 your list is actually very similar to mine. I started with three twins and then moved up to 4 and put my exarch/pestermite split at 3/3.
What I found was that game one it is better to be more leaning towards the combo. I found I was giving up a lot of free wins by simply not having the combo game 1. So game 1 I worry less about grinding and more about the combo and then sideboard accordingly. This also helps me next level oppenents by going hard on combo game 2 when they expect me to morph into control.
I am going to states today, so I'll post my list later tonight with a tourney report.
I cannot agree with you more.
It's like everyone got really good at grilling delicious ribs. Low and slow over mesquite. Then suddenly this new toy called the microwave comes out and everyone wants to start nuking their precious racks of ribs. We don't need to reinvent the wheel here guys...
1x Arid Mesa
2x Celestial Colonnade
4x Flooded Strand
1x colorless land
1x Hallowed Fountain
3x Island
1x Mountain
1x Plains
1x Sacred Foundry
4x Scalding Tarn
3x Steam Vents
1x Sulfur Falls
Assuming the mana base above, thoughts on ghost quarter vs loot house in the deck? Room for both?
You have to be careful here as it can be confusing to newer players. You need priority if you are going to activate vial on your opponent's turn. You don't get priority from land drops, so you'll need to make sure and activate vial during the upkeep, response to fetch, etc. I know you know this redtwister but the way it was worded sounded like it could cause confusion, and the main point to take away from your post is that an opponent can only respond to the vial trigger and not the creature being put into play. Cheers!
First off let me say I'm a huge fan of revoker and very bias in my answer to keep his number in the deck high(3-4).
You named a bunch of matchups where revoker shines, I would like to point out that out of those matchups a lot of the top decks in the format are included. Shardless, sneak and show and miracles are everywhere and I love having the trusty horror in these spots.
I would argue that what revoker loses against lands and delver he more than makes up for against the rest of the field, specifically the top decks of the format.
The second thing I want to.touch on is needle vs revoker. I think being able to beat down and vial in outweighs the ability to land turn 1. Especially main deck, if you have a needle I highly doubt you are casting it turn 1, you are much more likely to wait until you have more info on what you opponent is up to.
How many times have you won by vialing in a revoker in response to something vs how many games you have won by casting a needle turn 1? I'm awful at writing out my thoughts on my phone, but I can't stress enough how important revoker is to the non green builds.
4x Avatar of the Resolute
4x Dryad Militant
2x Dungrove Elder
4x Experiment One
4x Leatherback Baloth
2x Scavenging Ooze
1x Spellskite
4x Strangleroot Geist
Enchantment (6)
2x Blood Moon
4x Rancor
12x Forest
2x Misty Rainforest
1x Stomping Ground
1x Treetop Village
2x Verdant Catacombs
2x Windswept Heath
1x Wooded Foothills
Instant (8)
2x Aspect of Hydra
2x Dismember
4x Vines of VastwoodVastwood
2x Ancient Grudge
1x Back to Nature
2x Bow of Nylea
1x Choke
1x Crumble to Dust
1x Destructive Revelry
2x Feed the Clan
1x Kitchen Finks
1x Pithing Needle
2x Relic of Progenitus
1x Unravel the Aether
A few comments about the deck:
G1 it is very easy to mask the red splash. There is alot of room to catch opponents completely off guard by saving the fetch til the turn you slam an impactful red card.
Blood moon drastically improves a few of our worst matchups and will hose a lot of decks that could but don't fetch basics g1.
Vines as everyone here knows is amazing. It has so many applications it would take pages to list them all. I have recently countered wolf run activations, slayers strongholds and resto flickers for great value and surprise, seriously vines is THE green stifle/dispel/counterspell.
I have been so impressed with bow of nylea, it single handedly blows out a bunch of matchups. Great in grindy matchups, really helps kill pesky flyers like delver, clique, and flickerwisps, and is just game if resolved and let sit on the table vs burn.
Dungrove is a boss, and if I were to cut the blood moons I would add two more of him right away. This is a must counter for blue decks and great against jund if it can stick without dying to liliana.
Anyway just thought I'd share my impure shameful splash thoughts. Questions, comments and heretical punishment welcome!
Ya I can agree that there will be some awkward situations. For the most part I will be able to avoid them with how I sequence my land drops and when/if I drop blood moon. My meta is infested with Tron and Amulet so I will def main board the hate.
Not sure I totally understand what you are saying here. She is obviously weak to path, which our whole deck is. She gets turned on by a couple of dudes and her passive effect is actually quite relevant imo.
4x Avatar of the Resolute
4x Dryad Militant
2x Dungrove Elder
4x Experiment One
4x Leatherback Baloth
1x Nylea, God of the Hunt
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Spellskite
4x Strangleroot Geist
Enchantment (6)
2x Blood Moon
4x Rancor
14x Forest
2x Misty Rainforest
1x Stomping Ground
1x Treetop Village
1x Verdant Catacombs
1x Windswept Heath
1x Wooded Foothills
Instant (8)
2x Aspect of Hydra
2x Dismember
4x Vines of Vastwood
3x Ancient Grudge
1x Back to Nature
1x Bow of Nylea
1x Crumble to Dust
1x Destructive Revelry
2x Feed the Clan
1x Kitchen Finks
1x Pithing Needle
2x Relic of Progenitus
2x Unravel the Aether
4x Celestial Colonnade
4x Flooded Strand
1x Godless Shrine
1x Hallowed Fountain
3x Island
1x Mountain
1x Plains
2x Sacred Foundry
4x Scalding Tarn
2x Steam Vents
1x Sulfur Falls
3x Cryptic Command
1x Electrolyze
1x Kolaghan's Command
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Lightning Helix
3x Mana Leak
4x Path to Exile
2x Remand
2x Spell Snare
1x Sphinx's Revelation
4x Lingering Souls
1x Supreme Verdict
4x Snapcaster Mage
2x Crumble to Dust
1x Dispel
1x Gideon Jura
2x Kor Firewalker
1x Negate
2x Sowing Salt
1x Spellskite
1x Stony Silence
1x Wear / Tear
1x Wrath of God
I would love to squeeze a shadow of doubt into the main somewhere but I am pretty in love with the main deck. I think the added pain from the manabase to play souls is totally worth it. In fact it is mostly remedied by not playing any colorless lands. Anyone test the souls version lately? Thoughts?
1x Bloodstained Mire
1x Desolate Lighthouse
1x Drowned Catacomb
3x Island
1x Mountain
4x Polluted Delta
4x Scalding Tarn
3x Steam Vents
2x Sulfur Falls
1x Swamp
1x Watery Grave
2x Cryptic Command
1x Dispel
4x Serum Visions
4x Splinter Twin
2x Kolaghan's Command
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Remand
2x Spell Snare
2x Terminate
3x Pestermite
4x Snapcaster Mage
2x Tasigur, the Golden Fang
2x Blood Moon
1x Dismember
1x Dispel
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Grave Titan
1x Jace, Architect of Thought
1x Keranos, God of Storms
1x Kolaghan's Command
1x Negate
1x Rakdos Charm
1x Spellskite
1x Vendilion Clique
Right before the tournament I moved my Vendilion Clique from the main to the SB and moved one Dispel as I anticipated to play against burn and grixis multiple times. Boy was I wrong!
Matches:
Round 1: Kyle with G/R Tron 1-1-1
G1 was pretty straight forward. I remanded him into oblivion and then comboed off. G2 was fairly complex, I made a couple of misplays by not playing around his oblivion stone better. I also missed a key turn where I could have tapped his emrakul to buy me an extra turn. G3 we only had about 5 minutes to play, he was new to modern but a good player so the turns took longer than usual. An unfortunate draw here as I felt the matchup was heavily in my favor. Nerves, some rust and time got the better of me.
Record: 0-0-1
Round 2: Chris with Mono U Tron 0-2
I was still fairly in a daze from the last round and I really played this match terribly. G1 was close and it came down to a crucial turn where I could combo off through 2 counter spells and he had three cards in hand and they were all counters. I was pretty crushed after that play and G2 I just went through the motions and didn't think about my sequencing and slowly died. I think this matchup is still in our favor, but my lack of experience really showed here.
Record: 0-1-1
Round 3: Milton with U/R Twin? 2-1
G1 I thought he was on tarmotwin due to his multiple stomping grounds. I also saw a couple of ghost quarters which confused me. G1 ended in a counter war on his end step that left him tapped out and me with an exarch to combo for the win. G2 I considered bringing in blood moon but decided against it. I am glad I did because it turns out his deck was closer to blue moon with a twin package than anything else. He blood mooned me at a critical point and combo finished for the win. G3 was fairly grindy, but I was able to win another counter war for the win with the combo. He assumed I had boarded all but one of my splinter twins out, when in reality I actually only boarded one out. So I was able to fight him on the axis he wasn't ready for.
Record: 1-1-1
Round 4: Justin with Lantern Control 2-0
I finally felt free of the nerves and felt like I was shaking off the rust and my opponent casts turn 1 codex shredder... Luckily I was well prepared for this matchup and knew what to fight over. G1 I remanded his bridge 2 times thanks to snapcaster and then when he finally resolved it and was tapped out, he still had one card in hand which allowed me to combo with an exarch. G2 he landed t1 lantern and t2 bell and inquisition of kozilek. He had effectively stopped me from doing anything but he couldn't find a bridge, and I had a string of top cards that caused him to mill me three times in a row and still pop his lantern to stop me from drawing the combo to kill him. We were both top decking for awhile and eventually I was able to cast tasigur and beat him to death.
Record: 2-1-1
Round 5: Carl with Mardu Tokens 0-2
This matchup was a grind fest. In G1 we cast probably 9 kolaghan's commands between us and it came down to him being at 3 life with two dark confidants in play and he was able to burn me out before he died to his confidant triggers. G2 was more of the same but Jace, Architect of Thought completely shut him down for multiple turns. He was then able to get a monastery mentor online and nickel and dime the jace off of the ultimate. I hit a string of 4 lands in a row and no help off the jace either. If I had hit an anger of the gods in time I would have had a clean board free of bobs, young pyros, mentors and souls tokens and me with a jace vs an empty board and empty handed opponent, but alas the gods did not favor me with their anger.
Record: 2-2-1
Round 6: Jake with Amulet 2-1
G1 I got mercilessly comboed out on turn 2. I literally died before I could cast a single spell. G2 he started off slower, on turn three he cast summoners pact for Azusa which I killed on the end step. I untapped and cast blood moon to lock him off green and he died to his pact in the upkeep. G3 he had a slow start as well and he cast Azusa turn 3 which I remanded. The next turn he didn't play a land or recast the Azusa and instead he went for an ancient stirrings. I paused and then negated it. I usually wouldn't negate a stirrings but his sequencing seemed odd to me and I figured he was searching for lands. I was right, he didn't play a land and passed. He tried for another stirrings the next turn which I snap negated and he failed to play another land again. I landed tasigur then next turn and a few turns later he was dead. He told me that all he needed was any land to combo off, so my gut decision paid off.
Record: 3-2-1
Round 7: Thomas with Amulet 2-0
This guy was a really skilled pilot of the deck, but I was faster G1 and comboed him out. G2 was strange, he was on a mull to 5, I kept a sketchy hand that had two islands and a spell snare and some other random stuff. I was focused on simply stopping summer bloom at all costs. He cast a seal of primordium and I neglected to snare it. I drew a few snaps and pestermites which I just dropped into play for no value and to get a clock going. He was ready to go off and I was able to sneak in another snap and another pestermite to get him down to 2 and kolaghan's command him for lethal.
Final Record: 4-2-1
My record earned me 26th place out of 111. All in all I felt like I had a good tournament, I hadn't played live magic since July and hadn't played competitively since April. I feel if I had been less nervous and better prepared for the early rounds I could have made a deeper run.
I have been seeing a lot of lists with maindeck dispels and I really wish it had been a vendilion clique instead. It is honestly a meta call, but I really wish I hadn't dropped the clique from the main before the tourney as I boarded it in every match except for mardu tokens.
MVP: spell snare - This card did wonders for me, it hit an important spell in nearly every single game I played. It was great early and late and especially on the draw. I won't leave home without at least two of these in the maindeck.
MIA: Tasigur, the golden fang - I have him in the main for a reason! Incredible pressure and a much needed alternate plan of attack when you can't combo or slowly grind. In the few games he did show up he won the game. I just wish I had drawn him more!
Sideboard thoughts: I am pleasantly surprised with rakdos charm. I have it there specifically for the lantern deck and it was relevant in the game I played against it, as I was able to exile his yard that had a couple of bridges that he had self milled and was trying to get back with academy ruins. The destroy artifact text is also great in that matchup.
Grave Titan came in once or twice and I never drew him so I really can't say whether it is good or not. I'm sure if I had played vs more grixis or jund it would have been house, but I still need to test it more.
Manabase: It is FLAWLESS! I am very pleased with the exact 23 lands I am playing and if you haven't tried drowned catacomb yet, it is great. Much much better than darkslick shores.
Going forward: I like having access to three kolaghan's command but I think the slot in the board could be used for something else. The list below is what I am going to be playing for the near future.
1x Bloodstained Mire
1x Desolate Lighthouse
1x Drowned Catacomb
3x Island
1x Mountain
4x Polluted Delta
4x Scalding Tarn
3x Steam Vents
2x Sulfur Falls
1x Swamp
1x Watery Grave
4x Splinter Twin
2x Cryptic Command
2x Kolaghan's Command
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Remand
2x Spell Snare
2x Terminate
4x Serum Visions
3x Pestermite
4x Snapcaster Mage
2x Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1x Vendilion Clique
2x Blood Moon
1x Dismember
2x Dispel
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Grave Titan
1x Jace, Architect of Thought
1x Keranos, God of Storms
1x Negate
1x Rakdos Charm
1x Spellskite
1x Vendilion Clique
The dispels are still very good, but I think it takes a very good read on the meta to justify playing them main. Negate was phenomenal, in fact I would say it was better in general than dispel but I'm not sure what I would cut in the board to make room for a second copy.
Thanks for reading, I truly love the play style of this deck. With more confidence and practice I can see this being a tool that can adapt and crush any meta. Please if you have any questions about my card choices feel free to ask and I would love to hear your suggestions and advice as well.
What I found was that game one it is better to be more leaning towards the combo. I found I was giving up a lot of free wins by simply not having the combo game 1. So game 1 I worry less about grinding and more about the combo and then sideboard accordingly. This also helps me next level oppenents by going hard on combo game 2 when they expect me to morph into control.
I am going to states today, so I'll post my list later tonight with a tourney report.