Eh, I think that's an overstatement perhaps. You have to put a bit of work in to make him cheap all the time, unlike Derevi, say. What the "problem" with Tasigur is, I feel, is the same problem as Oloro. His colours are so strong and make for such a resilient 'goodstuff'/control deck that as soon as a slightly playable general is printed in those colours, the deck will automatically do well. I think that Tasigur might be banned for being over-represented like Oloro was when he was legal.
What do y'all think of Noham winning the tournament in Nîmes recently with Prossh without Food Chain? Is the deck still strong (certainly not as strong as it was), or was it just a flash in the pan/surprise factor type thing?
Is this deck just completely dead thanks to the Food Chain banning? Or is the elfball version still kinda viable. Pretty sad if the deck is no more, managed to play Noham's list once before the banning, was such a blast to play!
I seriously have trouble seeing why more people aren't running the snow basics + skred version. The basics cost you nothing, and you get a powerful creature removal spell for 1 mana at instant speed - something which UR has a seriously short supply of.
Secondly, you're running Tormod's Crypt, but no Trinket Mage. That's almost the entire point of running crypt over something like Relic, which can otherwise draw you a card.
No Keranos is a huge mistake I feel. It of course depends on how the it has been treating you, but I feel Prognostic Sphinx can probably go.
I'm also not sold on this whole Circular Logic thing. It feels it would be a dead card most of the time.
Also, some of your non-basics are suspect. I feel like a Nin deck should only have basics, fetches and Wasteland, with the total number of lands being around 42-44. That's what's common among most of these decks that T8 anyway. I thought about putting in Cavern, but then I realised (and by realised, I mean "was pointed out to me by better players) the main point of Nin is to make your opponent choose between messing up their game plan (by countering/killing her) or letting you outdraw them. So letting her get countered is fine, because they've spent a card from their hand, while you haven't. Classic card advantage.
Take these suggestions with a pinch of salt, as I'm no hardcore French expert - I have just played the deck a lot (online and on paper).
1. What are you not playing over Prophetic Bolt? Bolt is a fine card, but as you mentioned, quite expensive. Flame slash is manageable at sorcery speed because it's so cheap. There are some situations were Bolt is better - against control you can always aim it at their face/planeswalker and still get a more relevant card out of it.
2. In my experience, the amount of butthurt vs this deck is hilarious IRL. Maybe that's because I come from a meta of mostly normal commander converts, who still hold the opinion that "Control is lame/you play solitaire/deck isn't fun". Personally I don't think you should take it too seriously. If your sweet control deck crushes their "fun" deck, why should you feel bad? It's a competitive format. But if your meta is more mature about playing vs control it should be fine.
I think Winter Orb is right where it belongs. Not only would GAAIV benefit from an unbanning, but elfball decks would be insane. Fast creature mana and they only untap Gaea's Cradle? Seems a bit too strong. It also slows down the format, which is not what people want on the whole.
True, but all 3 colour decks are inherently soft to our moon effects. Tasigur isn't really an exception, especially since he's in black, meaning most mana bases will be tainted pact proof. True, Tasigur himself is a bit of a problem, especially since he comes down so early, but bounce spells and remand are insane vs him (just like any other delve spell).
There was a guy I played on Cockatrice who was super helpful with helping me with the Nin deck (playing and deckbuilding). His name on Cockatrice was mechint, I recognise it from these forums, or maybe online. Anyway, he seemed super knowledgeable about this deck, how to play it etc. Maybe try contacting him with regards to the primer?
About the other discussion: I think the only new thing Nin gains out of FRF is a new 3 colour control general to beat up on (Tasigur).
Bi-weekly Duel Commander Tournament, Cape Town, South Africa
25 January 2015
11 players total - 4 rounds
Top 4:
1. Narset, Enlightened Master (10 pts)
2. Anafenza, the Foremost (9 pts)
3. Nin, the Pain Artist (it's a me! 8 pts)
4. Geist of St. Traft (8 pts)
I personally love Rakdos Charm, and think it's very strong. Unfortunately I'm not sure what to cut for it. What is so weak in the list currently that it should be replaced by Rakdos Charm?
Side Note: How is the matchup vs 5C reanimator? It looks pretty even on paper, but that deck does ridiculous things in practice.
I would be wary of adding more 7+ mana bombs. This isn't regular EDH, and while Karn is powerful, Nicol Bolas is equally, if not more so. Ugin also functions similarly, except he acts as scale-able boardwipe (as Dan so trendily pointed out), which is far superior to any of Karn's ability's.
For the record, Alesha is Mardu aligned. Gotta check that rules text for colour identity. Why not play something like Wydwen or GAAIV, both of which are pretty good two colour generals. You could also play Ephara, God of the Polis - similar to GAAIV, but not as controlling, and with a lot more flash creatures/Geist/Brimaz. Not a T1 deck, for sure, but neither is Teysa, and Ephara draws you cards!
Secondly, you're running Tormod's Crypt, but no Trinket Mage. That's almost the entire point of running crypt over something like Relic, which can otherwise draw you a card.
No Keranos is a huge mistake I feel. It of course depends on how the it has been treating you, but I feel Prognostic Sphinx can probably go.
I'm also not sold on this whole Circular Logic thing. It feels it would be a dead card most of the time.
Also, some of your non-basics are suspect. I feel like a Nin deck should only have basics, fetches and Wasteland, with the total number of lands being around 42-44. That's what's common among most of these decks that T8 anyway. I thought about putting in Cavern, but then I realised (and by realised, I mean "was pointed out to me by better players) the main point of Nin is to make your opponent choose between messing up their game plan (by countering/killing her) or letting you outdraw them. So letting her get countered is fine, because they've spent a card from their hand, while you haven't. Classic card advantage.
Take these suggestions with a pinch of salt, as I'm no hardcore French expert - I have just played the deck a lot (online and on paper).
2. In my experience, the amount of butthurt vs this deck is hilarious IRL. Maybe that's because I come from a meta of mostly normal commander converts, who still hold the opinion that "Control is lame/you play solitaire/deck isn't fun". Personally I don't think you should take it too seriously. If your sweet control deck crushes their "fun" deck, why should you feel bad? It's a competitive format. But if your meta is more mature about playing vs control it should be fine.
About the other discussion: I think the only new thing Nin gains out of FRF is a new 3 colour control general to beat up on (Tasigur).
25 January 2015
11 players total - 4 rounds
Top 4:
1. Narset, Enlightened Master (10 pts)
2. Anafenza, the Foremost (9 pts)
3. Nin, the Pain Artist (it's a me! 8 pts)
4. Geist of St. Traft (8 pts)
Side Note: How is the matchup vs 5C reanimator? It looks pretty even on paper, but that deck does ridiculous things in practice.
I would be wary of adding more 7+ mana bombs. This isn't regular EDH, and while Karn is powerful, Nicol Bolas is equally, if not more so. Ugin also functions similarly, except he acts as scale-able boardwipe (as Dan so trendily pointed out), which is far superior to any of Karn's ability's.