Good cut, that card didn't seem like it could pull its weight compared to almost any other rare we could be playing. Anyone have comments on my list above?
I personally find Grasp to be more effective than Price, but that is a personal choice. While Grasp is -4/-4 it deals with multi-color and colorless creatures. This could change when Khans/Fate rotate in April, bu SOI should bring in new (hopefully better) removal. I am not a fan of ruinous path either, mainly because of it being sorcery speed. With Bearer and Drana, along with decent removal and hand disruption in Transgress and Duress I don't foresee planewalkers being an issue.
Decided to completely remove the Essence Depeleter from the deck entirely, replacing it mainboard with 2 Grasp and 2 Kalitas, adding 2 Languish to the sidebaord
He still seems unbalanced. One of the other Jace that has a bounce effect, hit non land and was a -3. So having anything bounce at a +1 is really powerful. The etb token should be named differently.
Agreed. I would make that a 0 and target only creatures.
On the counterspell-counter: interesting idea. Perhaps something like: ~ enters with a mind counter. ~ has hexproof as long as there is a mind count on ~. Remove a mind counter, counter target spell. Roll his loyalty done to 3 to account for power moving into the counter.
While I like U as a pair for black if I were to add in another color it would likely be W as it has more removal in Immolating Glare, Stasis Snare, Silkwrap, and allowing me to run Utter End. I'm hesitant to add in another color right now as I do like the feel of the deck as it stands right now.
Updated the decklist to reflect current state of my deck. My question is this: is the deck too creature heavy? The Depeleter, while a nice creature, could probably be removed as could the Drone without too many repercussions, in their place some more removal and maybe some more hand disruption. thoughts?
I kept the two Stranglers in main. I like Grasp in the side board as it provides an answer to several threats. The only reason it isn't main is that hitting BB isn't always a sure thing. Almost every time I sided cards in the first thing to get sided out was Wail. It is a very versatile card but it didn't really help in the way I was hoping (probably because I didn't encounter decks running Jace)
Thanks for the write up! Can you speak as to why you didn't run ghostfire blade, and if possible go into more detail on the R/B dragons match?
I didn't run Ghostfire Blade because a) I don't own any, b) the store I played at was out, c) I didn't have time to trade for any, and d) I'm not sure what I would take out for them. I have removed the three Wail for a fourth Transgress and 2 more Strangler. If I removed creatures from the main board (currently at 26 as I have not updated the decklist to reflect the removal of Wail) I would likely add in either removal or disruption. While Blade certainly would work in here, I do not feel it is the best option.
I will do my best to recount the BR Dragons match.
Game one: The early turns were slow and I kept a two land hand that I shouldn't have. He dropped Thunderbreak Regent on turn four and I played Thought-Knot on turn five to steal Boltwing Marauder and he beat me in the air before I could answer. Sided in Grasp and Depeleter out
Game two: He got mana flooded and top decked land four turns in a row. He Cruxed my Bearer and I burnt two Grasp on tokens to clear the way for Seer and Smasher to swing for the win.
Game three: I got mana screwed. He dropped a turn 4 Thunderbreak Regent and dashed Kolaghan on turn five all while I sat on three land with a Seer and two contortions in hand. Drew a non-land and he repeated for lethal.
I don't understand flickering Seer, they draw a card every time that's done since the text reads when Seer leaves the battlefield, not when Seer dies. Unless it's done purpose is to just see what the opponent has in hand every few turns I dint get it.
Otherwise that's a lot of good info from your results.
The intent on flickering Seer at the draw step was to, in some sense, control what your opponent has in hand. Yes, they net another card but you, in turn, get to strip another away
Took the deck in OP (updated to reflect manabase) to FNM last week and took 6th, going 3-2.
Round 1: 2-1 against Abzan
The one loss was to Sylvan Advocate and Shambling Vent but I was otherwise able to win out with Seer and Smasher. Side note: had to mulligan down to five on the play in game three and had probably one of the best 5 card hands this deck has to offer: Cave of Koilos, Ruins of Oran-Rief, Matter Reshaper, Thought-Knot Seer, and Reality Smasher.
Round 2: 2-1 against Mono-red Goblins
The one loss was because I wasn't able to stop his token making. Game three featured Duress and Transgress doing a lot of heavy lifting in stripping away the token makers.
Round 3: 0-2 against G/W Hardened Scales
Not too surprised with this, as the absence of Virulent Plague (which I was later able to acquire) made it incredibly hard to deal with Hangarback tokens
Round 4: 2-1 against <>BW Eldrazi
Won game one because he got mana screwed. Games two and three were a race to see who could land the Thought-Knots and Smashers first.
Round 5: 1-2 against BR Dragons
The one game I won was from him getting mana flooded. Got mana screwed in game three.
Overall: one of the funner decks I've played in a long time and my best finish in a tournament in years. My friend (who ran the goblins deck I beat in round 2) ran into another Eldrazi deck with the Displacer flickering Seer on his draw step. I'm considering running them in sideboard as a more control aspect. White might be a good idea to splash for more exile effects, but with only one processor I'm not sure how useful it will be
Removed the Prices in the sideboard for Grasp. Taking this deck to FNM tonight to see what happens (though hoping to acquire some cards last minute to make it better)
I intend to. I've made changes already based on Barry's deck and am planning on taking it to FNM this week to see how it does. It's a different type of deck than I am used to, playing control primarily, but it is fun to curve Reshaper into Seer into Smasher. I'll likely update my decklist today or tomorrow, once I have a bit more time.
EDIT: Decklist updated to the current form of the deck I am running
the main reason the pain lands aren't in here is because I don't have any of them. Ulamog will be replaced with another Reaver Drone once I acquire one. Bane is in here mainly for Deceiver triggers (which has the same CMC yet didn't get mentioned *shrug*). I missed all of the Khans block, so I also don't have many (if any) cards from that set.
@Khanth: Thank you for the deck list. I'll base changes and ideas off of that list.
I'll likely be on both for a time, determining which would be better suit me. That said, I'd likely go to Nexus in the end to reduce the likelihood of this happening to me again
I personally find Grasp to be more effective than Price, but that is a personal choice. While Grasp is -4/-4 it deals with multi-color and colorless creatures. This could change when Khans/Fate rotate in April, bu SOI should bring in new (hopefully better) removal. I am not a fan of ruinous path either, mainly because of it being sorcery speed. With Bearer and Drana, along with decent removal and hand disruption in Transgress and Duress I don't foresee planewalkers being an issue.
Agreed. I would make that a 0 and target only creatures.
On the counterspell-counter: interesting idea. Perhaps something like: ~ enters with a mind counter. ~ has hexproof as long as there is a mind count on ~. Remove a mind counter, counter target spell. Roll his loyalty done to 3 to account for power moving into the counter.
I kept the two Stranglers in main. I like Grasp in the side board as it provides an answer to several threats. The only reason it isn't main is that hitting BB isn't always a sure thing. Almost every time I sided cards in the first thing to get sided out was Wail. It is a very versatile card but it didn't really help in the way I was hoping (probably because I didn't encounter decks running Jace)
I didn't run Ghostfire Blade because a) I don't own any, b) the store I played at was out, c) I didn't have time to trade for any, and d) I'm not sure what I would take out for them. I have removed the three Wail for a fourth Transgress and 2 more Strangler. If I removed creatures from the main board (currently at 26 as I have not updated the decklist to reflect the removal of Wail) I would likely add in either removal or disruption. While Blade certainly would work in here, I do not feel it is the best option.
I will do my best to recount the BR Dragons match.
Game one: The early turns were slow and I kept a two land hand that I shouldn't have. He dropped Thunderbreak Regent on turn four and I played Thought-Knot on turn five to steal Boltwing Marauder and he beat me in the air before I could answer. Sided in Grasp and Depeleter out
Game two: He got mana flooded and top decked land four turns in a row. He Cruxed my Bearer and I burnt two Grasp on tokens to clear the way for Seer and Smasher to swing for the win.
Game three: I got mana screwed. He dropped a turn 4 Thunderbreak Regent and dashed Kolaghan on turn five all while I sat on three land with a Seer and two contortions in hand. Drew a non-land and he repeated for lethal.
The intent on flickering Seer at the draw step was to, in some sense, control what your opponent has in hand. Yes, they net another card but you, in turn, get to strip another away
Round 1: 2-1 against Abzan
The one loss was to Sylvan Advocate and Shambling Vent but I was otherwise able to win out with Seer and Smasher. Side note: had to mulligan down to five on the play in game three and had probably one of the best 5 card hands this deck has to offer: Cave of Koilos, Ruins of Oran-Rief, Matter Reshaper, Thought-Knot Seer, and Reality Smasher.
Round 2: 2-1 against Mono-red Goblins
The one loss was because I wasn't able to stop his token making. Game three featured Duress and Transgress doing a lot of heavy lifting in stripping away the token makers.
Round 3: 0-2 against G/W Hardened Scales
Not too surprised with this, as the absence of Virulent Plague (which I was later able to acquire) made it incredibly hard to deal with Hangarback tokens
Round 4: 2-1 against <>BW Eldrazi
Won game one because he got mana screwed. Games two and three were a race to see who could land the Thought-Knots and Smashers first.
Round 5: 1-2 against BR Dragons
The one game I won was from him getting mana flooded. Got mana screwed in game three.
Overall: one of the funner decks I've played in a long time and my best finish in a tournament in years. My friend (who ran the goblins deck I beat in round 2) ran into another Eldrazi deck with the Displacer flickering Seer on his draw step. I'm considering running them in sideboard as a more control aspect. White might be a good idea to splash for more exile effects, but with only one processor I'm not sure how useful it will be
EDIT: Decklist updated to the current form of the deck I am running
@Khanth: Thank you for the deck list. I'll base changes and ideas off of that list.