Lemme bring you guys some news from block. Right now, two decks are big. Esper and Selesnya. Selesnya focusses around tokens. Lot and lots of tokens. Call of the Conclave, Advent of the Wurm, etc etc. Voice of Resurgence is a powerhouse in this deck.
This is a portion of the reason VoR is so huge. Its a 4 of mythic in a huge deck in block.
Unfortunately, that huge deck has big weaknesses printed in. Golgari already has Gaze of Granite, and soon everyone is going to have a cheaper version of it that effectively works at instant speed against tokens. Once that see play, VoR is going to drop.
Also, its still playing second fiddle to Esper, which has taken over a huge part of the meta in Block.
The big deck in block thats built around it (I've found taking decks built around a card gives you a good idea of that cards strengths and weaknesses) already loses out to Esper.
Now, I'm no economist. But if Esper is dominating in Block, that means it already has a lot of the tools it needs to function. It doesn't need a huge amount of support in Theros to do scary stuff. Maybe we should be looking more at some of the cards in RTR and gatecrash, rather then DGM.
I hadn't noticed that. But this deck is built more around an early game presence then a late game one. But still. Its something for me to look into for alterations. Perhaps I can put blood baron and sin collector in the sideboard for control matchups. Obzedat...not so much. He costs too much mana to use effectively, and this deck doesn't play well with gates.
Advent of the wurm is a powerful card, but its a bit of a nombo in this deck. The two white mana plus the fact that it can't be scavenged effectively makes it tricky to use well. Lotleth Troll and selesnya charm provides plenty of trample.
Voice of Resurgence...Heh. I honestly don't know if its the better slot for these matchups then tithe drinker. its certainly better against control, but aggro presents problems. In aggro, tithe drinker can become huge stabilization, especially when you selesnya charm or scavenge things onto it. And aggro is what this deck has the most trouble with.
And thats it. As you may have guessed, I need some sideboarding help here.
Thoughts on this so far? I'm still trying to build it up, so the numbers are likely a little off. They'll change over time.
Anyway. Reasoning time. The bit where I explain why I picked one card over another.
Alms Beast over Desecration Demon
This one seems like an odd choice, and I'm not sure I made the right one. Desecration Demon tends to be harder to cast (especially in block), and in some cases, the opponent will just feed them with their early drops while their late drops take over the field. With this deck, I don't have to worry too much about them gaining life, as most decks that want the extra life are fairly creature light.
Loxodon Smiter over Centaur Healer
Three words. Can't be countered. My deck already has methods to stabilize life, (Ready and Willing for aggro matchups, and tithe drinker just in general) and the slightly bigger body plus the fact that neither discard (at least not opponent forced discard) nor counterspells will take it out made the choice for me.
Selesnya Charm over Orzhov Charm
Orzhov Charm is good removal, have no doubt about that. But its other modes aren't effective enough in my deck to make it worthwhile. I can see using all three of Selesnya charms modes effectively, and I don't have the slot for them both. Selesnya Charm wins by a mile.
This is the new deck, as is in MTGO.
The golgari charm is mainly there to combat two things. Enchantments, and a trend towards vampires I've been seeing lately. Its enough to shut off blood artist. On occasion, it'll even be used to save creatures.
I've taken BaconCheezBurger's advice on some aspects, but not all. Notable exclusions are the grave crawler and the Geralfs Messenger. I happened to have a few messengers, and gave them a spin. They don't get out easily, and when they do, its at the cost of other things like the desecration demon, which is also heavy black, as is Lotleth Troll and...well, at that point, its too heavy into black to be able to play other stuff effectively and still remain three colors.
I ended up choosing The rampagers over Rancor as Grisly salvage will let me pick them up in a pinch.
The main problem with Geralf is casting him. Three black mana is a little tricky to drop. I'll look into Boneyard Wurm, though. That one has potential. As for Rancor, I'm not so sure of the viability. But I'll give it a shot and post an updated decklist.
Alright. I've been testing this build for awhile, and I think I've finally tweaked it enough that it can see the light of day. This deck is partially built around Varolz, partially built around not having Varolz, and partially built around just plain face smashing.
Still, calm down a while before crying about it so much.
^This. So much this. The formats young. People are going with what they know will work in the early game, then once it stabilizes enough that the good decks are obvious, control builds around taking those down.
Isn't that the way this works?
Correct me if I'm wrong.
But...if I'm not, what the hell are you people arguing about?
This is the updated version of the deck. I replaced cyclonic rift with unsummon, and uncovered clues with think twice. Cyclonic Rift stayed in the sideboard for two reasons. One, its sometimes a good unsummon 5-7. Secondly, in some matchups, I need to bounce nonland permanents instead of creatures. It helps there a lot. Augur of Bolas is in the sideboard mainly as a brake on aggro. Dispel sits there for use against control decks, especially sphinxes revelation decks.
The deck is still weak against Ghost Pants Decks (Hexproof plus enchantments) and I'm not sure how to fix that, or if it even can be fixed.
Thoughts?
With the new deck, the former information here wasn't relevant. What I'm looking for now is improvements on the deck as is. I'm thinking about adding snapcaster mages, but I'm not sure they'd be worth the card slot here, as adding 2 mana cost to spells (casting snapcaster) is enough to make the deck too clunky to function well in most games.
Matchup Notes:
Control: Still getting data on this. This deck deals well with sphinx decks thus far though.
Aggro, Mono Red: Good matchup. Suite of removal plus hands of binding usually seals the deal. Most damage dealt through Guttersnipe, or an unblockable Nivix Cyclops. Will usually side two Goblin Electromancers for Augur of Bolas.
Aggro, Green Red: Little bit harder as strangleroot geist tends to cause problems. Still a decent matchup.
I'm surprised no ones mentioned it yet, but Uncovered Clues can do a lot of work in your deck. It's basically a slightly more expensive augur of bolas that happens to set off guttersnipe and Talrand.
EDIT: Oh. Also Mizzium Skin. It protects your talrands and guttersnipes from burnout, and the +0/+1 Can be relevant against the aggro decks, which like to have lots of 2/2s.
Few issues with this one. Funny thing is, The elemental and Nivix Cyclops play REALLY well together. I was planning on replacing the delver with the cyclops. I'd agree on the artful dodge, looking over it. Its good fuel, and should probably deal with some stuff. Not to mention, I can use it twice, unlike teleportal. As for pillar of flame, I've found a lot of the scary stuff for this deck is three toughness or above. Its a fine sideboard card, but it doesn't have a place main deck.
Augur is nice, but I'm not sure he's worth taking out the goblin. One of the nice parts about the goblin is that most of the spells that cost 2 in this deck are there deliberately. Everything comes a turn earlier. But...having two of him does get kind of useless. I'll look into it.
I've actually had some thoughts in the direction of cutting delver. He's fairly inconsistent. Blistercoil Weird Might do the job better, but I'm uncertain as to his effectiveness. Maybe the cyclops can fill in for him.
The lighthouse is also an interesting idea, as well as the augur. I'd looked at Augur as an unimportant card because think twice fills its role, but maybe I should look at it again.
However, the dynacharge does more work then you'd think. In this deck, it has a lot of variety. It can be used for its straight up purpose of beating face, It can feed the elemental, and it triggers guttersnipe for free. But...I do see your points on cutting it. I'll trade it out for turn and burn once it comes out on MTGO. The only reason thats not in there is because MTGO doesn't have it up yet. Thanks for the advice! I'll test it out, see how it does.
I don't really have much to add aside from AMAZING PUN. The Deck itself about as good as mill will get. Maybe add a Lazav, Dimir Mastermind So you can profit from the milling? Probably won't work, but at least it'd be funny.
This is a portion of the reason VoR is so huge. Its a 4 of mythic in a huge deck in block.
Unfortunately, that huge deck has big weaknesses printed in. Golgari already has Gaze of Granite, and soon everyone is going to have a cheaper version of it that effectively works at instant speed against tokens. Once that see play, VoR is going to drop.
Also, its still playing second fiddle to Esper, which has taken over a huge part of the meta in Block.
The big deck in block thats built around it (I've found taking decks built around a card gives you a good idea of that cards strengths and weaknesses) already loses out to Esper.
Now, I'm no economist. But if Esper is dominating in Block, that means it already has a lot of the tools it needs to function. It doesn't need a huge amount of support in Theros to do scary stuff. Maybe we should be looking more at some of the cards in RTR and gatecrash, rather then DGM.
Advent of the wurm is a powerful card, but its a bit of a nombo in this deck. The two white mana plus the fact that it can't be scavenged effectively makes it tricky to use well. Lotleth Troll and selesnya charm provides plenty of trample.
Voice of Resurgence...Heh. I honestly don't know if its the better slot for these matchups then tithe drinker. its certainly better against control, but aggro presents problems. In aggro, tithe drinker can become huge stabilization, especially when you selesnya charm or scavenge things onto it. And aggro is what this deck has the most trouble with.
4 Dryad Militant
4 Tithe Drinker
2 Fencing Ace
4 Loxodon Smiter
3 Varolz, The Scar-striped
4 Alms Beast
4 Lotleth Troll
4 Putrefy
4 Selesnya Charm
4 Grisly Salvage
Lands
4 Godless Shrine
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Temple Garden
4 Swamp
4 Forest
3 Plains
The sideboard is still being built. Here are the cards I'm considering
1.Vraska, the Unseen
2.Ready/Willing
3. Abrupt Decay
And thats it. As you may have guessed, I need some sideboarding help here.
Thoughts on this so far? I'm still trying to build it up, so the numbers are likely a little off. They'll change over time.
Anyway. Reasoning time. The bit where I explain why I picked one card over another.
Alms Beast over Desecration Demon
This one seems like an odd choice, and I'm not sure I made the right one. Desecration Demon tends to be harder to cast (especially in block), and in some cases, the opponent will just feed them with their early drops while their late drops take over the field. With this deck, I don't have to worry too much about them gaining life, as most decks that want the extra life are fairly creature light.
Loxodon Smiter over Centaur Healer
Three words. Can't be countered. My deck already has methods to stabilize life, (Ready and Willing for aggro matchups, and tithe drinker just in general) and the slightly bigger body plus the fact that neither discard (at least not opponent forced discard) nor counterspells will take it out made the choice for me.
Selesnya Charm over Orzhov Charm
Orzhov Charm is good removal, have no doubt about that. But its other modes aren't effective enough in my deck to make it worthwhile. I can see using all three of Selesnya charms modes effectively, and I don't have the slot for them both. Selesnya Charm wins by a mile.
3 Putrefy
3 Varolz, the Scar-Striped
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Blood Crypt
4 Stomping Ground
4 Desecration Demon
3 Rootbound Crag
3 Dryad Militant
2 Woodland Cemetery
2 Kessig Wolf Run
3 Diregraf Ghoul
4 Vexing Devil
4 Boneyard Wurm
2 Faithless Looting
4 Grisly Salvage
3 Ghor-Clan Rampager
3 Devour Flesh
3 Flesh/Blood
3 Sire of Insanity
3 Gnaw to the Bone
3 Golgari Charm
This is the new deck, as is in MTGO.
The golgari charm is mainly there to combat two things. Enchantments, and a trend towards vampires I've been seeing lately. Its enough to shut off blood artist. On occasion, it'll even be used to save creatures.
I've taken BaconCheezBurger's advice on some aspects, but not all. Notable exclusions are the grave crawler and the Geralfs Messenger. I happened to have a few messengers, and gave them a spin. They don't get out easily, and when they do, its at the cost of other things like the desecration demon, which is also heavy black, as is Lotleth Troll and...well, at that point, its too heavy into black to be able to play other stuff effectively and still remain three colors.
I ended up choosing The rampagers over Rancor as Grisly salvage will let me pick them up in a pinch.
Anyway. Thoughts on this new list?
3 Putrefy
3 Varolz, the Scar-Striped
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Blood Crypt
4 Stomping Ground
4 Desecration Demon
3 Rootbound Crag
3 Dryad Militant
2 Woodland Cemetery
2 Kessig Wolf Run
3 Diregraf Ghoul
4 Vexing Devil
4 Boneyard Wurm
3 Faithless Looting
3 Grisly Salvage
3 Ghor-Clan Rampager
3 Devour Flesh
3 Flesh/Blood
3 Sire of Insanity
3 Gnaw to the Bone
3 Golgari Charm
EDIT: Most of the info here was no longer relevant, so I went ahead and removed it. Thoughts on the decklist as it is?
^This. So much this. The formats young. People are going with what they know will work in the early game, then once it stabilizes enough that the good decks are obvious, control builds around taking those down.
Isn't that the way this works?
Correct me if I'm wrong.
But...if I'm not, what the hell are you people arguing about?
4 Steam Vents
8 Island
8 Mountain
4 Sulfur Falls
Creatures
3 Goblin Electromancer
3 Guttersnipe
4 Nivix Cyclops
3 Turn/Burn
4 Think Twice
4 Unsummon
4 Syncopate
4 Searing Spear
3 Hands of Binding
2 Mizzium Mortars
2 Artful Dodge
1 Mizzium Mortars
4 Dispel
1 Turn/Burn
1 Guttersnipe
2 Augur of Bolas
3 Cyclonic Rift
2 Artful Dodge
1 Hands of Binding
This is the updated version of the deck. I replaced cyclonic rift with unsummon, and uncovered clues with think twice. Cyclonic Rift stayed in the sideboard for two reasons. One, its sometimes a good unsummon 5-7. Secondly, in some matchups, I need to bounce nonland permanents instead of creatures. It helps there a lot. Augur of Bolas is in the sideboard mainly as a brake on aggro. Dispel sits there for use against control decks, especially sphinxes revelation decks.
The deck is still weak against Ghost Pants Decks (Hexproof plus enchantments) and I'm not sure how to fix that, or if it even can be fixed.
Thoughts?
4 Steam Vents
8 Island
8 Mountain
4 Sulfur Falls
Creatures
3 Goblin Electromancer
3 Guttersnipe
4 Nivix Cyclops
3 Turn/Burn
4 Think Twice
4 Unsummon
4 Syncopate
4 Searing Spear
3 Hands of Binding
2 Mizzium Mortars
2 Artful Dodge
1 Mizzium Mortars
4 Dispel
1 Turn/Burn
1 Guttersnipe
2 Augur of Bolas
3 Cyclonic Rift
2 Artful Dodge
1 Hands of Binding
EDIT: Deck Updated.
With the new deck, the former information here wasn't relevant. What I'm looking for now is improvements on the deck as is. I'm thinking about adding snapcaster mages, but I'm not sure they'd be worth the card slot here, as adding 2 mana cost to spells (casting snapcaster) is enough to make the deck too clunky to function well in most games.
Matchup Notes:
Control: Still getting data on this. This deck deals well with sphinx decks thus far though.
Aggro, Mono Red: Good matchup. Suite of removal plus hands of binding usually seals the deal. Most damage dealt through Guttersnipe, or an unblockable Nivix Cyclops. Will usually side two Goblin Electromancers for Augur of Bolas.
Aggro, Green Red: Little bit harder as strangleroot geist tends to cause problems. Still a decent matchup.
More data forthcoming!
EDIT: Oh. Also Mizzium Skin. It protects your talrands and guttersnipes from burnout, and the +0/+1 Can be relevant against the aggro decks, which like to have lots of 2/2s.
Few issues with this one. Funny thing is, The elemental and Nivix Cyclops play REALLY well together. I was planning on replacing the delver with the cyclops. I'd agree on the artful dodge, looking over it. Its good fuel, and should probably deal with some stuff. Not to mention, I can use it twice, unlike teleportal. As for pillar of flame, I've found a lot of the scary stuff for this deck is three toughness or above. Its a fine sideboard card, but it doesn't have a place main deck.
Augur is nice, but I'm not sure he's worth taking out the goblin. One of the nice parts about the goblin is that most of the spells that cost 2 in this deck are there deliberately. Everything comes a turn earlier. But...having two of him does get kind of useless. I'll look into it.
The lighthouse is also an interesting idea, as well as the augur. I'd looked at Augur as an unimportant card because think twice fills its role, but maybe I should look at it again.
However, the dynacharge does more work then you'd think. In this deck, it has a lot of variety. It can be used for its straight up purpose of beating face, It can feed the elemental, and it triggers guttersnipe for free. But...I do see your points on cutting it. I'll trade it out for turn and burn once it comes out on MTGO. The only reason thats not in there is because MTGO doesn't have it up yet. Thanks for the advice! I'll test it out, see how it does.