I had most of the stuff for a Bring to Light list, so I built it. I want to unleash it at one of the stores around here but I work almost every time so I don't have a chance other than practice with a friends small zoo deck or wilted abzan. Mine's mostly the LSV list save for swapping catacombs for windswept heaths. I might still make a few changes to it like maybe more birds or sideboard changes.
To further explain from experience to what they're talking about:
I didn't have a white source other than a signet. I played Gifts for Plains, Snow-Covered Plains, Hallowed Fountain and Celestial Colonnade. I would've been better off going for a Flooded Strand instead of the Colonnade but I wasn't thinking at the time. No matter how they did the pile, I got 2 white sources. You can do the same thing with Island, SC Island, Hallowed Fountain, Flooded Strand.
Brago seems like it be a blast to play, I'm just missing a few key things for it. Dakkon is too much fun atm with the people I play with. Hardly anyone complains about it except the sneaky Hatred + Surestrike Trident + Tainted Strike plays.
I wrote my response as a generalization, not just against GR Tron. Not many people at the LGS I go to play GR Tron so I'm not worried too much about it. I have a Terastodon in there after some of the discussion here but I'm more worried about various Twin builds, Delver is becoming popular and the mirror UW Tron.
Beating GR Tron tho, I don't know what we can do that isn't dedicating a lot of our SB into beating them. Chalice is a great answer, if you draw it. Stony Silence is another answer, if you draw it but doesn't stop spells. I might look into a few options that work against multiple decks that also hose GR Tron.
The main issue with Aetherling is its ability states "...return it to the battlefield at the beginning of the next end step." You bounce it once and Aetherling is done til the next turn. A good opponent will try to target it with something every turn to make you spend that blue mana. If it was a straight up blink effect it would be considerably better but I don't think we have the blue mana to support it. Signets and dual lands be damned, that's taking away from your white mana sources too. That ability makes Aetherling too slow. If we had more colored mana sources maybe we could. How would you protect it the turn it comes out when you only have 2 blue mana available? I'd rather cast something else for 6 mana that's a lot more threatening like a Wurmcoil Engine or use that mana for something else like a giant Sphinx's Revelation, Ugin or Emrakul.
I run a single Wurmcoil Engine in the main and it saved me a few times. Didn't have the mana to hard cast anything and the combo was already shut down. Managed to protect it long enough to gain enough life to be out of burn range. I feel like it's s great card to have and won't leave home without it.
Ojutai can't impact the board the moment he hits the field. Elesh Norn gets rid of small fields. Iona locks out an entire color. Terastodon can get rid of key pieces of their board control. Emrakul is Emrakul. Ojutai is too slow for the kind of deck that we are.
Spellskite in the SB is so good. There's a few match ups it's helped but Burn was by far the best. You have to be selective which spells you redirect. Mainboard though? I already feel like the mb is pretty solid as is without altering it too much. Work keeps me away from tournaments so I haven't had an opportunity to do any testing on anything, specifically 10 tron lands.
I'm trying to get out of the combo mind and that came from a mostly combo mind, lol. Fortunately Legacy D&T is helping with that.
I can see every now and then, it can be super beneficial to pump Dakkon with an attack step too. Being at 9 damage, swinging for 10 with the sword and throwing infect on there is a nice surprise.
Glad to hear your brew is a house. I haven't had much opportunity to play since the last time, working 50 hours a week and trying to coordinate schedules before the holiday hasn't been fun. Hopefully going into the slow season I can start churning out some games.
I really like the Shadow of Doubt tech from your edit on the last page. I can only imagine how the table reacted to two Sol Rings as well, lol. I'll have to get my list in a decent way to copy pasta into here so it's not all messed up one of these days too.
I'm considering dropping Nahiri now that I think about it more. She's really only effective if I have any equipment in my hand or on the table. The tokens are nice as emergency board fill but I think she'd go better in something like my Linvala artifact voltron deck than in here.
I changed my list around a little, still keeping in things like Hinder, Spell Crumple and Oblation. Tuck effects are still nice for the metas I play in. Returned a few Eldrazi back to their libraries so they couldn't refill their deck.
Nahiri was an absolute beast for me one game. I drew all three swords, all got destroyed, brought them all back. I'm still trying to figure out why they went after my equipment instead of my planeswalker... Equipped my Terastodon tokens with swords for revenge beats. Much salt there was.
Still want to make room for Brainstorm and Dig Through Time, gotta play some more and see what needs to stay and go.
Hatred -> Surestrike Trident
Swan Song -> Cryptic Command
Time Warp -> Nahiri, the Lithomancer
Jace Beleren -> Jace, the Mind Sculptor
One meta I play in is kind of slow and not too control heavy, more creature combo than anything. The other is budget or super fast decks that no one can compete with because when your general is Kozilek and you can drop him on turn 1 or 2 with haste, the game is kind of over. I also like planeswalkers. Dropped Time Warp mostly because I don't own one and Nahiri seemed like a solid addition especially with her -2.
@Cryogen: I'm curious of your new list. I based mine mostly around your late Feb list with a few changes. I mostly wanted a deck that didn't draw tons of hate during the first few turns of the game aside from Serra Ascendant. I've also used JTMS to some great degree in a few games, mostly aggressive fate sealing everyone's lands away or bouncing everything. After some thinking I'm kind of reserved on LotV mostly because a lot of the meta here is graveyard based. No need to fuel their decks with no ways to respond.
Grim Return IMO is too situational. Yes, it does save you from having to recast your general or allows you to steal from someone else, but needing to keep up 3 mana at all times for it can be too taxing.
I just built this a few days ago and it's already my favorite deck. I wanted to run Sen Triplets but in the 2 EDH groups I play with, one said the deck would immediately get hated off the table and the other would basically be Archenemy.
I didn't have a white source other than a signet. I played Gifts for Plains, Snow-Covered Plains, Hallowed Fountain and Celestial Colonnade. I would've been better off going for a Flooded Strand instead of the Colonnade but I wasn't thinking at the time. No matter how they did the pile, I got 2 white sources. You can do the same thing with Island, SC Island, Hallowed Fountain, Flooded Strand.
Feels nice to have a deck the playgroup doesn't groan at too. I might include Assault Suit just for the hell of it.
I wrote my response as a generalization, not just against GR Tron. Not many people at the LGS I go to play GR Tron so I'm not worried too much about it. I have a Terastodon in there after some of the discussion here but I'm more worried about various Twin builds, Delver is becoming popular and the mirror UW Tron.
Beating GR Tron tho, I don't know what we can do that isn't dedicating a lot of our SB into beating them. Chalice is a great answer, if you draw it. Stony Silence is another answer, if you draw it but doesn't stop spells. I might look into a few options that work against multiple decks that also hose GR Tron.
I can see every now and then, it can be super beneficial to pump Dakkon with an attack step too. Being at 9 damage, swinging for 10 with the sword and throwing infect on there is a nice surprise.
I don't really like extra combat steps for this type of deck, it seems like more of a Narset or UG type of theme, maybe even tokens.
I really like the Shadow of Doubt tech from your edit on the last page. I can only imagine how the table reacted to two Sol Rings as well, lol. I'll have to get my list in a decent way to copy pasta into here so it's not all messed up one of these days too.
I'm considering dropping Nahiri now that I think about it more. She's really only effective if I have any equipment in my hand or on the table. The tokens are nice as emergency board fill but I think she'd go better in something like my Linvala artifact voltron deck than in here.
Nahiri was an absolute beast for me one game. I drew all three swords, all got destroyed, brought them all back. I'm still trying to figure out why they went after my equipment instead of my planeswalker... Equipped my Terastodon tokens with swords for revenge beats. Much salt there was.
Still want to make room for Brainstorm and Dig Through Time, gotta play some more and see what needs to stay and go.
Hatred -> Surestrike Trident
Swan Song -> Cryptic Command
Time Warp -> Nahiri, the Lithomancer
Jace Beleren -> Jace, the Mind Sculptor
One meta I play in is kind of slow and not too control heavy, more creature combo than anything. The other is budget or super fast decks that no one can compete with because when your general is Kozilek and you can drop him on turn 1 or 2 with haste, the game is kind of over. I also like planeswalkers. Dropped Time Warp mostly because I don't own one and Nahiri seemed like a solid addition especially with her -2.
@Cryogen: I'm curious of your new list. I based mine mostly around your late Feb list with a few changes. I mostly wanted a deck that didn't draw tons of hate during the first few turns of the game aside from Serra Ascendant. I've also used JTMS to some great degree in a few games, mostly aggressive fate sealing everyone's lands away or bouncing everything. After some thinking I'm kind of reserved on LotV mostly because a lot of the meta here is graveyard based. No need to fuel their decks with no ways to respond.
I just built this a few days ago and it's already my favorite deck. I wanted to run Sen Triplets but in the 2 EDH groups I play with, one said the deck would immediately get hated off the table and the other would basically be Archenemy.