He kind of void ground attacks but he's not that hard to kill. We have boardwipes, ral's minus, ob nixilis' minus, ajani's vengent's minus and the abyss to kill him.
As my play group tends more and more towards cEDH lately this deck is slowly becoming unplayable. I could tune it but it would lose its essence. Its still a ton of fun to play but it can not win easily. Often times it will establish total control over the game only to be overthrown due to a lack of win condition. Most of my wins lately have been due to Humility hosing everyone's game plan. I agree with chaoserver that people sometimes will overreact to planeswalkers presence. In 1v1 this deck does fine because it packs a lot of control. Its much harder to control 3 other players however.
Speaking of cuts, I recently cut The Chain Veil for extra turn cards and I have no regrets. I'm also testing Necropotence but triple black is a bit hard to cast sometimes. Other cuts:
-Sacred Foundry (had too many lands IMO and needed ramp so this is now a Mana crypt)
-Ensnaring Bridge (this is an experiment, it might come back, but I added so much draw lately that its often times not worth it)
-Maelstrom Pulse (sorcecy speed is too limitating)
-Decree of Pain (love this card but I draw enough and I need to lower the curve with the new mulligan)
-Regrowth (might come back but its never saved me)
-Chain Veil (sloowwwwww)
I might swap Counterflux for Mana Drain if I can get one. Also might take out Coalition Relic for Mana Vault. Vault can be untapped by Venser's +2, Ral's +1, Tezz's +1 and Teferi's -1. Relic is way too slow for my taste.
Song can be removed. It is only really useful against commanders because they don't go back to commande zone. I don't consider beast within an irreplaceable staple however.
I'm considering dropping Chromatic Lantern to open up a slot. In all the deck existence I don't think I've been mana screwed once. I run 10 ABU 10 fetch 10 shocks + 5 basics + reflecting pool + command tower. I also ramp from farseek, nature's lore and three visits. I will also drop the mountain for mana confluence. Sphinx' Revelation is also on the chopping block. I don't think I've cast it once in the entire lifetime of the deck and I already draw a crapload of cards.
I will be adding Academy Rector and maybe the other slot will be a flex for oaths even though I think they suck, I will at least give them a shot.
I also disagree with those who are cutting Tezz. He can be great against prisons with his +1, his minus fetches some good ramp or ensnaring bridge. It might be because I'm running contagion engine tho. The +1 is amazing with it.
No, I'm trying these 2 for now because they will very likely cost less to cast, thus allowing me to setup a planes + take an extra turn instead of tapping out. Plus see my second point about opponents using them against you.
- We have a ton of topdeck manipulation (vampiric, sylvan, top, jace TMS, mystical, lili vess) for Temporal Mastery
- The exile clause is bittersweet because we cannot rebound with narset but it is safera against decks with diluvian primordial (meta call)
- The amount of ramp/fetch cards in the deck makes delve quite interesting
Ok...so I get banning prophet (I dont agree with it, but I get it)...
BUT WHY THE **** DO WE STILL HAVE: Narset, Ad Nauseam, Doomsday, Hermit Druid? Basically the "oops I won" cards?!? I was expecting to see a few bans, seeing only prophet really makes me question their decisions a lot. Cards like these completely wreck metas, basically obligating players to run several redundant niche hate cards and very often certain colors simply don't have great answers. Also changing the mulligan system means I can no longer dig for those answers! One of the ways I survived the degenerate decks was aggressively mulliganing for answers. Now it's pretty much luck and praying we don't die turn 1-4.
Kinda pissed. I really do't feel glass-canon combo should be as powerful as it is and it needs addressing more than prophet.
I don't mind short games. I don't mind combo wins. I don't like having a Prophet player play 7 turns over 4 regular turns. It makes the game boring, especially if it takes forever for him to win (unless he has DEN/Palinchron obv.).
Also, glass canon is being hit hard by the mulligan rule. I'd give it some time to see if it slows them down. I'm sure it will.
As I said in a previous post, the deck has little issues with control or draw. I will oftentimes find myself in a commanding position only to durdle two or three turns while my opponents recover. Some planes just won't win the game for you so it really depends on what you draw.
The ones that makes me win the most are elspeth sun's champion (token swarm or emblem), ral zarek (infinite turns), jace aot's ultimate (depends on meta) or narset's ult (lockdown).
I could try to win with infinite spell combos but I like the deck in its pure form. That is, creatureless with PW wincons. But that's just me.
I'm not sure I will include the new planes. Nissa cannot ult easily even with doubling season. The +1 can do some work with clamp but thats it. I'd keep beleren and fayden at 3.
Chandra is better but suffers from the high card quality of the deck and low recursion. She's not bad though. The ult is not so good. I don't have issues drawing right now. I need cards that help me win and these cards do not.
I will be including Ob Nixilis in my list when he comes out replacing Sarkhan the Mad due to having the same kind of utility except that we can actually use the minus on Ob Nixilis.
On another note, I won a few games using Capsize to either replay ultimates with doubling season or bounce boards with Omniscience. I think it deserves a spot.
Speaking of cuts, I recently cut The Chain Veil for extra turn cards and I have no regrets. I'm also testing Necropotence but triple black is a bit hard to cast sometimes. Other cuts:
-Sacred Foundry (had too many lands IMO and needed ramp so this is now a Mana crypt)
-Ensnaring Bridge (this is an experiment, it might come back, but I added so much draw lately that its often times not worth it)
-Maelstrom Pulse (sorcecy speed is too limitating)
-Decree of Pain (love this card but I draw enough and I need to lower the curve with the new mulligan)
-Regrowth (might come back but its never saved me)
-Chain Veil (sloowwwwww)
+Mana Crypt
+Demonic Tutor
+Vampiric Tutor
+Praetor's Grasp (kind of a triple deck tutor, removes the need to run more removal/counters)
+Academy Rector (fought for the creatureless theme for a while but I finally gave up)
+Necropotence
I might swap Counterflux for Mana Drain if I can get one. Also might take out Coalition Relic for Mana Vault. Vault can be untapped by Venser's +2, Ral's +1, Tezz's +1 and Teferi's -1. Relic is way too slow for my taste.
I will be adding Academy Rector and maybe the other slot will be a flex for oaths even though I think they suck, I will at least give them a shot.
I also disagree with those who are cutting Tezz. He can be great against prisons with his +1, his minus fetches some good ramp or ensnaring bridge. It might be because I'm running contagion engine tho. The +1 is amazing with it.
Thoughts?
Would you run all 4? That's a lot of slots.
- We have a ton of topdeck manipulation (vampiric, sylvan, top, jace TMS, mystical, lili vess) for Temporal Mastery
- The exile clause is bittersweet because we cannot rebound with narset but it is safera against decks with diluvian primordial (meta call)
- The amount of ramp/fetch cards in the deck makes delve quite interesting
Thoughts?
I don't mind short games. I don't mind combo wins. I don't like having a Prophet player play 7 turns over 4 regular turns. It makes the game boring, especially if it takes forever for him to win (unless he has DEN/Palinchron obv.).
Also, glass canon is being hit hard by the mulligan rule. I'd give it some time to see if it slows them down. I'm sure it will.
The ones that makes me win the most are elspeth sun's champion (token swarm or emblem), ral zarek (infinite turns), jace aot's ultimate (depends on meta) or narset's ult (lockdown).
I could try to win with infinite spell combos but I like the deck in its pure form. That is, creatureless with PW wincons. But that's just me.
Chandra is better but suffers from the high card quality of the deck and low recursion. She's not bad though. The ult is not so good. I don't have issues drawing right now. I need cards that help me win and these cards do not.
On another note, I won a few games using Capsize to either replay ultimates with doubling season or bounce boards with Omniscience. I think it deserves a spot.