pearl lake ancient has the very distinct advantage of inevitability. surrak just dies to countless standard removal spells. pearl lake ancient plays the attrition game. plus, control has a small number of reliable finishers and, as i mentioned, plays them when winning has become inevitable. making your non-existant other creatures uncounterable does very little.
that said.. i prefer temur's ability to play aggressive control, and i'd definitely be knuckleblading folks. there are plenty of matches where knuckleblade will just outclass them on curve and beat down, where pearl lake ancient would rot in hand. knuckleblade also plays the pearl lake role for cheaper, although slightly less reliable.
I'd check out what Kibler is up to. Not specifically control, but kind of an aggro control in the vein of old school madness decks. looks like a lot of fun.
LOL.. Hornets Nest + Anger of the Gods... take me now, sailor. I can see them setting up for an alpha strike, then Xenagos just runs up and shakes the nest off a branch and throws it at them.
Really cool deck idea. How has Steam Augury been treating you?
I really like seeker right now. So many decks are doing taplands and durdle until turn 3, and seeker + crackling doom just obliterates that plan. Seeker + Thoughtseize can be a beating too. Still testing, but I'm leaning towards a creature base of 4 seeker, 4 master, 4 butcher.
Your curve needs adjusting. You have 6 one drops, 2 two drops, and 19 three drops. You're going to get tempoed out of the building very consistently. You rely heavily on 1 for 1 removal/denial, but your ability to play multiple spells before turn six is very restricted. That's dangerous territory.
I'd suggesting choosing either rabblemaster or brimaz, but not both. If you choose brimaz, your white spell count should go up since he necessitates more white sources of mana to be cast on curve- which he must be. Personally, I suggest less brimaz and a simpler R/B setup with a white splash. This allows for two very strong two drop options- magma jet (way better in new standard, scry super important) and lightning strike. Additionally, you have the option of playing seeker of the way, which is really strong in this removal heavy setup.
So, decide what you want the deck to do and build for it. Want to beat Abzan? You need stormbreath dragon, crackling doom, thoughtseize, planeswalkers and your curve can be very mid-range. Want to beat boss sligh and ramp? Lightning strike, magma jet and bile blight, with anger or drown in the 75. Etc. Tweak your 60 with that in mind and build out your sideboard to shore up weakness. Here's what my main deck is currently:
I'm playing fairly low to the ground, at least until I get my hands on planeswalkers. The goal is to rely on diverse removal, control the early game or chump, then switch gears to close it out ASAP. All the cards support that. Seeker appears weak at first glance, but he fills multiple important rolls. I've also been testing master of the feast over rabblemaster. He's a house against aggro, but control laughs. Rabblemaster is the opposite. So, I consider that a flex slot I'm still working out. Maybe just needs to be papa stormbreath
I'd drop all the cute spells for either acceleration or removal. You're going to get controlled easily and outclassed on your curve. It's a fun deck, but might as well do all you can to make it competitive too. Stoke the flames has just got to be in here, and lightning strike is necessary for mantis riders and rabblemasters, etc.
At the very least, bile blight hits their dorks as well. An answer to cards that comprise good starts and good endings is certainly nothing to scoff at.
Sylvan Caryatid is hexproof and Courser of Kruphix is 4 toughness, so unless you're doing something ELSE into them as well, it's frustrating to say the least, especially when most of our burn spells only do 2 or 3 damage. It's been the death of me two FNM in a row. I can either waste a Heros Downfall, Crackling Doom, or Banishing light on the Courser to stall the threats/land life gain (while knowing all the decks run full playsets of both and I have no maindeck answers to Caryatid) or just hope I can deal with whatever threats DO come down. But even then, they have a 0/3 hexproof blocker and 2/4 blocker. The only real ways around them seem to be wraths or air creatures. I'm trying out a creature set next week with Goblin Rabblemaster being the only non-flyer and bringing some nice air support with Herald of Torment, Hushwing Gryff, Stormbreath Dragon, or Wingmate Roc in addition to Butcher of the Horde. With enough kill/disruption, I should be able to survive long enough to get the 5CMC threats online.
This is why I rely on Butcher and Master against G/x. Both cards come down at a point in the curve that belies their p/t ratio- which allows you to keep pace with the G/x accelerated threats. While they drop dorks to power out a turn three polukranos, we simply drop a 5/5 in the air to answer. Bile Blight trumps their Hornet Queen nut draws and even Arbor Colossus falls to master/butcher + burn. Meanwhile, Rabblemaster can trade up to take down a courser/caryatid, Seeker can do the same (and live). They don't even block most of the time, assuring that butcher/master is a fast clock. Lifelink jabs combined with removal and burn keep us racing just fine.
I'm also cutting champions. They're great in the opening hand, sometimes. That's almost all they bring to table. Not really where I want to be with cards in this deck.
Glad to see I'm not the only one getting positive results out of Master of the Feast. He's been just brutal in my testing.
Surprised to see a lack of Bile Blight in some of these lists, but maybe it's just my meta that makes it so good. Lots of green ramp and jeskai.
I know that Blight is great against the hornet tokens but getting a 1 or 2 of card to line up with their 1 or 2 of card isn't worth messing the deck up for. I am going to run no blights tomorrow night where i know there are several green devotion players and how it goes.
Oh, just realized my post popped up right below your mention of the card. I wasn't replying specifically to you or anything. I just find Bile Blight to be really good in general. Hits all the three drops I'm actually scared of right on curve when I'm on the draw, and it keeps me aggressive on the play. Throw in the fact that it can be a huge card advantage swing, and I'm just thoroughly sold.
I'm also cutting champions. They're great in the opening hand, sometimes. That's almost all they bring to table. Not really where I want to be with cards in this deck.
Glad to see I'm not the only one getting positive results out of Master of the Feast. He's been just brutal in my testing.
Surprised to see a lack of Bile Blight in some of these lists, but maybe it's just my meta that makes it so good. Lots of green ramp and jeskai.
Also, some way to filter your draws. You don't want to be top decking Waste Not when you have two Mantis Riders putting you on a one turn burn out clock.
Seeker of the Way is so ridiculously important for this deck, in my opinion. Brad Nelson explained it best when he said it's not a card you plan to win with, it's just a piece of the puzzle. On the play, he opens up really strong tempo lines. Turn two seeker, turn three crackling doom is pretty crazy and even works on caryatid on the play and courser on the draw. Two of them in play is just crazy, and mid-game you can swing for 4 or 5 out of nowhere. At the very least, he goes on the butcher's block should he become irrelevant.
I'm definitely in the magma jet camp with a few others in this thread. I went a bit further and started running read the bones. I'll probably swap it out for Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker once I get my hands on them, though.
I've been dedicating 8 slots of the sideboard for a transformational beaters sideboard plan, cause turn three 5/5 flyer, turn four 5/4 flyer is game over for lots of people. With a post board creature suite of: 4 bloodsoaked champion, 4 seeker of the way, 4 master of the feast, 4 goblin rabblemaster and 4 butcher of the horde.. it lets you just aggro people out. I'm not sticking with that plan since it doesn't solve our difficult matches, but it's been great fun in testing
thoughtseize is kind of the ultimate one drop. if you're talking strictly threats, gnarled scarhide gives you the complete MBA one drop threat suite, and he suits up later for a truly terrifying butcher heh.
i actually think 12 one drops is fine. i'd look towards either dual role two drops- like seeker of the way or any of rabble red's current set- or some way to protect your dudes/kill courser/caryatid/rhino- like boon of erebos and lightning strike. lightning strike seems like an auto include. it punishes slow starts with a quick GG, and it takes down jeskai's threats- particularly mantis rider, which can totally brick you when they're on the play.
I'd suggest checking out mardu. Plays a lot more what like what I was looking for with jund. Mardu charm is surprisingly excellent, and butcher of the horde is as unfair as you might expect. Thoughtseize, lightning strike, seeker, banishing light, bile blight, rabblemaster, downfall. Tons of good stuff.
Just burn alone is a good win con, I mean you're gonna find a dicatate before you run out of burn spells.
Dictate does cost 5 mana and before it hits the table, your burn spells don't pack the punch necessary for a burn out plan. That's why cards like Jeskai Charm would be good. They timewalk opponents who cast mid-rangy threats.. and they hit for major damage post dictate.
Ashcloud isn't better than sarkhan by any means, but it does do something this deck is in the market for- recur. Sarkhan is defenseless in your list, where-as the phoenix sticks around and has the benefit of coming down as an early blocker.
that said.. i prefer temur's ability to play aggressive control, and i'd definitely be knuckleblading folks. there are plenty of matches where knuckleblade will just outclass them on curve and beat down, where pearl lake ancient would rot in hand. knuckleblade also plays the pearl lake role for cheaper, although slightly less reliable.
I'd check out what Kibler is up to. Not specifically control, but kind of an aggro control in the vein of old school madness decks. looks like a lot of fun.
Really cool deck idea. How has Steam Augury been treating you?
I'd suggesting choosing either rabblemaster or brimaz, but not both. If you choose brimaz, your white spell count should go up since he necessitates more white sources of mana to be cast on curve- which he must be. Personally, I suggest less brimaz and a simpler R/B setup with a white splash. This allows for two very strong two drop options- magma jet (way better in new standard, scry super important) and lightning strike. Additionally, you have the option of playing seeker of the way, which is really strong in this removal heavy setup.
So, decide what you want the deck to do and build for it. Want to beat Abzan? You need stormbreath dragon, crackling doom, thoughtseize, planeswalkers and your curve can be very mid-range. Want to beat boss sligh and ramp? Lightning strike, magma jet and bile blight, with anger or drown in the 75. Etc. Tweak your 60 with that in mind and build out your sideboard to shore up weakness. Here's what my main deck is currently:
4 goblin rabblemaster
4 butcher of the horde
4 lightning strike
2 bile blight
3 magma jet
4 crackling doom
3 mardu charm
4 heros downfall
I'm playing fairly low to the ground, at least until I get my hands on planeswalkers. The goal is to rely on diverse removal, control the early game or chump, then switch gears to close it out ASAP. All the cards support that. Seeker appears weak at first glance, but he fills multiple important rolls. I've also been testing master of the feast over rabblemaster. He's a house against aggro, but control laughs. Rabblemaster is the opposite. So, I consider that a flex slot I'm still working out. Maybe just needs to be papa stormbreath
Hope this helps!
This is why I rely on Butcher and Master against G/x. Both cards come down at a point in the curve that belies their p/t ratio- which allows you to keep pace with the G/x accelerated threats. While they drop dorks to power out a turn three polukranos, we simply drop a 5/5 in the air to answer. Bile Blight trumps their Hornet Queen nut draws and even Arbor Colossus falls to master/butcher + burn. Meanwhile, Rabblemaster can trade up to take down a courser/caryatid, Seeker can do the same (and live). They don't even block most of the time, assuring that butcher/master is a fast clock. Lifelink jabs combined with removal and burn keep us racing just fine.
Oh, just realized my post popped up right below your mention of the card. I wasn't replying specifically to you or anything. I just find Bile Blight to be really good in general. Hits all the three drops I'm actually scared of right on curve when I'm on the draw, and it keeps me aggressive on the play. Throw in the fact that it can be a huge card advantage swing, and I'm just thoroughly sold.
Glad to see I'm not the only one getting positive results out of Master of the Feast. He's been just brutal in my testing.
Surprised to see a lack of Bile Blight in some of these lists, but maybe it's just my meta that makes it so good. Lots of green ramp and jeskai.
Also, some way to filter your draws. You don't want to be top decking Waste Not when you have two Mantis Riders putting you on a one turn burn out clock.
4 goblin rabblemaster
4 butcher of the horde
3 crackling doom
3 hero's downfall
3 magma jet
4 lightning strike
2 bile blight
3 mardu charm
2 read the bones
Seeker of the Way is so ridiculously important for this deck, in my opinion. Brad Nelson explained it best when he said it's not a card you plan to win with, it's just a piece of the puzzle. On the play, he opens up really strong tempo lines. Turn two seeker, turn three crackling doom is pretty crazy and even works on caryatid on the play and courser on the draw. Two of them in play is just crazy, and mid-game you can swing for 4 or 5 out of nowhere. At the very least, he goes on the butcher's block should he become irrelevant.
I'm definitely in the magma jet camp with a few others in this thread. I went a bit further and started running read the bones. I'll probably swap it out for Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker once I get my hands on them, though.
I've been dedicating 8 slots of the sideboard for a transformational beaters sideboard plan, cause turn three 5/5 flyer, turn four 5/4 flyer is game over for lots of people. With a post board creature suite of: 4 bloodsoaked champion, 4 seeker of the way, 4 master of the feast, 4 goblin rabblemaster and 4 butcher of the horde.. it lets you just aggro people out. I'm not sticking with that plan since it doesn't solve our difficult matches, but it's been great fun in testing
i actually think 12 one drops is fine. i'd look towards either dual role two drops- like seeker of the way or any of rabble red's current set- or some way to protect your dudes/kill courser/caryatid/rhino- like boon of erebos and lightning strike. lightning strike seems like an auto include. it punishes slow starts with a quick GG, and it takes down jeskai's threats- particularly mantis rider, which can totally brick you when they're on the play.
Dictate does cost 5 mana and before it hits the table, your burn spells don't pack the punch necessary for a burn out plan. That's why cards like Jeskai Charm would be good. They timewalk opponents who cast mid-rangy threats.. and they hit for major damage post dictate.
Ashcloud isn't better than sarkhan by any means, but it does do something this deck is in the market for- recur. Sarkhan is defenseless in your list, where-as the phoenix sticks around and has the benefit of coming down as an early blocker.