@trav I really think you should give Mana Vault a try. Its been amazing for me.
@Macius it does not take much to make it worthwhile. She's castable on turn two off of Mana Vault. It triggers twice on a fetchland so Crucible is pretty much a free ancestral recall.
I agree that overall Chandra is better. My arguments were aimed at the early game.
How do you win exactly? My deck has been focusing more on combos lately and tokens are a secondary win condition. They're the only reason why I keep planeswalkers like Sorin, Lord of Innistrad.
I got myself a Burgeoning, I will test and report back. You might be right that its bad late game.
Fair enough on Ajani. I'll keep running him for a while.
I'm cooling down on Chandra actually. I think she's terrible on the curve for us. Compare her to Garruk Wildspeaker. With Garruk, you either get a permanent blocker or untap two lands (good with Ancient Tomb too!). Chandra will either
- +1 for a card that you cannot cast
- +1 for two mana that you cannot use on the curve and I only have 5 red mana symbols in the deck so it does not help the next cast most of the time
- -3 and expose herself to dying to kill a medium threat
The ultimate is amazing but aside from that I fear that oftentimes she will play a lot like Elspeth, Knight-Errant which I've cut from the deck. She was terrible in the starting hand.
On the other hand, I'm liking Nissa a lot more because I see many ways for her to be good with the cards we play.
CMC green is more of a centric color to the deck so I don't have to skew my early game fetching to cast her. I currently have this mana symbol distribution (18B 14G 5R 38U 19W).
+1 the downside of losing a creature can be offset by Crucible of Worlds and it kind of ramps. The body is great too
-3 regrowth effects are always good in a deck where the card quality is so high plus its amazing with rings of brightheart
The ultimate is also amazing and can be triggered on one turn if you have these cards:
Now what does she enable? I think she would be a good argument to test Burgeoning again. The deck already draws a *****ton of cards and dumping lands faster would be great.
I do but I would not cut those for that Nissa. I run a couple more over 4CMC but I only listed those I would cut. I think Garruk is a lot better ult aside but triple G has been an issue often enough on curve that I've been wanting to cut him for a while. The draw with sliver queen is great but at that point I might as well run Recurring Insight.
Also, Ajani Steadfast has been good so far and he also enables the new Nissa. You might want to consider him.
So Dovin Baan was a little underwhelming to me. What do you guys think?
I agree. Look at it this way, if a planeswalker does not ult when we have Doubling Season, it has to be really good assuming that most of the time he will activate only once. In that case, we might stop a combo deck for one turn, or pay 4 mana to draw a card. Its not that amazing. Compare it to the new Tamiyo. She will protect herself better and sometimes draw 2 cards for you and the ult is mindblowing AND works with doubling season. So far I'm only interested in the new Chandra.
Not a fan of the new Nissa? She seems good, imo.
She is good. I'm not sure if she's better than the ones I run already. I'm trying to lower the curve a bit. Over 4CMC there is garruk, venser, lili vess and ob nixilis that don't do a whole lot for their cost. What do you think?
So Dovin Baan was a little underwhelming to me. What do you guys think?
I agree. Look at it this way, if a planeswalker does not ult when we have Doubling Season, it has to be really good assuming that most of the time he will activate only once. In that case, we might stop a combo deck for one turn, or pay 4 mana to draw a card. Its not that amazing. Compare it to the new Tamiyo. She will protect herself better and sometimes draw 2 cards for you and the ult is mindblowing AND works with doubling season. So far I'm only interested in the new Chandra.
Hey guys, I need help with my pool for a sealed league. I built the deck around the UG emerge cards but the deck seems highly uninteractive so I need some help. (Link on tappedout http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/16-08-16-sealed-league/)
Basically my win conds are all focused on the 3 eldrazis and I have almost no way to interact outside Gone Missing and Compelling Deterrence. Should I move into white/green for the fliers, the Puncturing Lights and keep the blue eldrazis onboard?
If you have the budget, include mana crypt, mana vault; the 2cc landramps, tailsman or signets. Gamble and imperial seal. Cryptholith rite ,Skullclamp and aura shards are too conditional on your sliver queen and does nothing in opéning hands. Prismatic omen doesnt net u extra mana. Awakening zone dun fixed ur mana colors. Skyshroud claim is too slow as a ramp and you could have cast a superfriend with four mana.
Talismans are much better than signets because they don't require an activation cost. The life loss could be relevant depending on if you are playing Necropotence and the likes.
Skyshroud claim is too slow as a ramp and you could have cast a superfriend with four mana.
I agree with all of those except I like Skyshroud Claim usually. It gets two ABUR duals untapped and I don't usually want to cast a walker as soon as I hit 4 mana since I'm trying to build protection for my board too (or I'm holding a 6 drop)
I guess it depends on your meta. For me, turn 4 or 5 usually means I have to deal with a Preator (Jin/Clex) or a Rafiq coming at my planeswalkers. I'd rather have Sliver Queen out by that time or some kind of 4CMC token producer walker, or even hate cards like humility/lethal vapors. I usually spend my first turns tutoring for high impact mana rocks or ramping through the 2CMC green ramp cards. I've increased the amount of extra turn effects so I can sometimes ult planes very early if they don't get attacked into by turn 4-5. What happens if you are too slow in your early game is that you will have to spend turn 5-6 tutoring for answers then playing said answers, and, at this point, you've already pretty much lost the game.
I've cut most 6 drop walkers because they are mostly good on an empty board. Those I kept can give me great value in one turn like Teferi untapping rocks.
Mine has ended up very combo oriented with infinite mana into sliver token, infinite turns with ral zarek or backbreaking emblems like Narset. Its still only "ok" but it will win often against 75% decks. Not a great cost to power ratio but by far my favorite deck so far. My list is somewhere in Trav_Ragnar's primer if anyone is interested.
I guess it depends on your meta. Mine is mostly creature based combos so wipes are not really a thing. The biggest issue I have is Rift. I never played with them so if you test them, let me know how it goes.
I run the same tutor suite aside from Imperial Seal due to cost, but I would if I had it.
So I've tested my current changes a few times and it has been going amazing so far. I had some very explosive starts. The mana rocks make the untap effects of our planeswalkers amazing. I will try to find room for Basalt Monolith because infinite mana is cool with Sliver Queen. The fact that I can win on the spot on a single turn reduces the need for a huge control package so I'm ready to make more room for the Basalt combo and extra turn effects (Temporal Manipulation is on the way). I might cut a 6CMC wrath, either Merciless Eviction or Austere Command. I like the fact that a single mana rock adds another wincond to the deck as well as helping me ramp to lategame ASAP.
@Macius it does not take much to make it worthwhile. She's castable on turn two off of Mana Vault. It triggers twice on a fetchland so Crucible is pretty much a free ancestral recall.
How do you win exactly? My deck has been focusing more on combos lately and tokens are a secondary win condition. They're the only reason why I keep planeswalkers like Sorin, Lord of Innistrad.
I got myself a Burgeoning, I will test and report back. You might be right that its bad late game.
I'm cooling down on Chandra actually. I think she's terrible on the curve for us. Compare her to Garruk Wildspeaker. With Garruk, you either get a permanent blocker or untap two lands (good with Ancient Tomb too!). Chandra will either
- +1 for a card that you cannot cast
- +1 for two mana that you cannot use on the curve and I only have 5 red mana symbols in the deck so it does not help the next cast most of the time
- -3 and expose herself to dying to kill a medium threat
The ultimate is amazing but aside from that I fear that oftentimes she will play a lot like Elspeth, Knight-Errant which I've cut from the deck. She was terrible in the starting hand.
On the other hand, I'm liking Nissa a lot more because I see many ways for her to be good with the cards we play.
CMC green is more of a centric color to the deck so I don't have to skew my early game fetching to cast her. I currently have this mana symbol distribution (18B 14G 5R 38U 19W).
+1 the downside of losing a creature can be offset by Crucible of Worlds and it kind of ramps. The body is great too
-3 regrowth effects are always good in a deck where the card quality is so high plus its amazing with rings of brightheart
The ultimate is also amazing and can be triggered on one turn if you have these cards:
Ajani Steadfast
Oath of Gideon
Contagion Engine
The Chain Veil
Any extra turn effect
Teferi's emblem
Now what does she enable? I think she would be a good argument to test Burgeoning again. The deck already draws a *****ton of cards and dumping lands faster would be great.
Thoughts?
Also, Ajani Steadfast has been good so far and he also enables the new Nissa. You might want to consider him.
She is good. I'm not sure if she's better than the ones I run already. I'm trying to lower the curve a bit. Over 4CMC there is garruk, venser, lili vess and ob nixilis that don't do a whole lot for their cost. What do you think?
I agree. Look at it this way, if a planeswalker does not ult when we have Doubling Season, it has to be really good assuming that most of the time he will activate only once. In that case, we might stop a combo deck for one turn, or pay 4 mana to draw a card. Its not that amazing. Compare it to the new Tamiyo. She will protect herself better and sometimes draw 2 cards for you and the ult is mindblowing AND works with doubling season. So far I'm only interested in the new Chandra.
The +1 is not really a "Draw" however as it exiles the spell.
Has anyone tested Kaya yet? She seems ok but I'm not sure what I'd take out for her.
Basically my win conds are all focused on the 3 eldrazis and I have almost no way to interact outside Gone Missing and Compelling Deterrence. Should I move into white/green for the fliers, the Puncturing Lights and keep the blue eldrazis onboard?
Decklist for reference: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/sealed-league-deck-4/
Talismans are much better than signets because they don't require an activation cost. The life loss could be relevant depending on if you are playing Necropotence and the likes.
I'm also a fan of Basalt Monolith and Grim Monolith because Rings of Brightheart then infinite sliver tokens (win cond) and Grim is just amazing if you happen to have Ral Zarek Venser, the Sojourner Teferi, temporal Archmage or Tezzeret, the seeker in your starting hand with it. You can then almost hardcast Omniscience by turn 4 by going
Land (free tutor mana if you happen to have it)
Land Monolith
Land Ral Zarek untap Monolith
Land activate monolith twice -> 10 mana
I guess it depends on your meta. For me, turn 4 or 5 usually means I have to deal with a Preator (Jin/Clex) or a Rafiq coming at my planeswalkers. I'd rather have Sliver Queen out by that time or some kind of 4CMC token producer walker, or even hate cards like humility/lethal vapors. I usually spend my first turns tutoring for high impact mana rocks or ramping through the 2CMC green ramp cards. I've increased the amount of extra turn effects so I can sometimes ult planes very early if they don't get attacked into by turn 4-5. What happens if you are too slow in your early game is that you will have to spend turn 5-6 tutoring for answers then playing said answers, and, at this point, you've already pretty much lost the game.
I've cut most 6 drop walkers because they are mostly good on an empty board. Those I kept can give me great value in one turn like Teferi untapping rocks.
Painful Quandary
Bloodchief Ascension
Nether Void
Also
Land Equilibrium
I run the same tutor suite aside from Imperial Seal due to cost, but I would if I had it.