My argument for batterskull:
The question is, what types of decks are they good vs, and which of those match ups do we want a dedicated finisher type card in.
Batterskull is good vs decks that mainboard bloodmoon or burn spells, we don't mind tapping out after they've mostly emptied their hand and the lifegain is worth the loss of of inevitably.
Similarly, we have trouble with combo sometimes, but both ad nauseum and scapeshift can be slowed and even beaten with enough lifegain.
Elspeth is great as an all around finisher, she has use vs G w/b x decks with goyfs, tasigur, the fish, loxodon smite, KotR sometimes, things like that. But we are already fairly strong to those types of decks usually.
She's a great 8 drop answer to Ulamog, and a 7 drop vs worldbreaker. I think she's fine vs smaller eldrazi although they'll already have hit you a bunch by the time she drops. She sweeps fish after they've already won.
I guess she slows 8 wack and elves down, but again, way to slow. Vs these types of decks I think we want more immediate answers to the decks she shines vs, by the time elspeth is online in most matches, any finisher/roadblock is going to work the same, often for less mana.
In the matches where batterskull shines it can halt agression, and in matches where it doesn't matter as much what we use to close out the game the extra lifegain really helps to pull our life total out of reach of blow outs/miscellaneous damage that can slip through and get us if we're low.
For reference here is the list I'm taking to GP Charlotte. It's still changing a little here and there, but it's pretty close to where I want it to be.
I am thinking of switching a negate and timely for 2 Leyline. I could also be convinced to switch to Elspeth, I just think batterskull is the better use of the slot based on what we need help Vs.
Game 1 we just want to fart power onto the board.
Game 2 we have plenty of answers for various strategies, from secure the wastes to Westvale Abby, we got answers.
Overwhelming Denial has been really good to me recently. I have scapeshift in my meta and being able to say absolutely not in the main has been really nice.
Pathing a turd and surging it in has been really solid as well.
I'm also on one mainboard terminus, and it's been good to me. I had 2 for a while but I kept having one in my opener and it felt like a waste.
Gideon Jura is miles ahead of of token gideon in a lot of ways. One just has to facedown some lingering souls, or an x3 to realize his true power. He's a 2-3 turn fog that forces unfavorable attacks, kills tapped things and finally animates and turns a quick clock. Token gideon is a slower clock that can go wide with 2/2 tokens, he's basically only a wincon.
Hey guys, I've been posting mostly in Neo7inker's UW facebook group where we've been brewing up a storm with this deck. I figured I'd pop in here and do a little write up on the deck.
Cards with an asterisk are cards that are currently on trial for playtesting to see how they do. I was having an issue with 1 or 2 surgical extractions eating up my threats so I diversified, moving the Geists to the board and adding Jace MA back in along with a trial Drogskol Reaver. I kind of like him better than Ojutai as a late-game finisher as he refills both of our resources while providing a faster clock, plus, with our mana rock package he's a turn 4-5-6 play, not t7.
Speaking of our rocks, I really want to take a moment to talk about how sweet having a mana-rock package is. Right now I'm using 3 types of rocks, the Keyrune is a trial to see about adding a cheap threat, that also let's us cast our 5+ drops a turn early. It may just be better as a coalition relic or two, but it's the 2 drop rocks that really shine. We can play them out, hold open path and untap on 3 with a verdict. The 1 of mindstone is for late game cantriping.
Can you tell I've been craving a bit more draw in the deck? That's also why I've got MA and Monastery Siege. I like MA better than AoT because while he doesn't dig as deep when he lands, he draws more consistently if our opponent can't answer him. Yes, AoT shuts down souls and slows down agro, but gideon and verdict do the same already. MA throws the hands vs Lantern control, ad nauseum, and other random decks that can't handle losing 10 + cards from their library, let alone a 5 turn mill clock.
Our other new toy is the hilarious Monastery Siege, which I think is brilliant game one. It turns all our opponents bolts and atarka's commands and such into heavy mana investments, really slowing their game plan down to our speed. Game 2 we take out all our enchants to turn their D revs into a dead draw (although it's kind of funny turning a DRev into a 4 drop) Late game we can drop it and dig for whatever we need, pitching extra mana leaks and rocks to it doesn't really hurt us. Though it is yet another point towards wanting a pair of Snapcasters main, something I don't currently own.
Terminus as a one of seemed too good to not at least try out, call it the 61st card if you like instead of the serum visions (which offers the ever spicey set up of t3 visions with 2 mana and a mind stone open, response to opponents combat crack mindstone, Terminus.) if you like. I like the odds of randomly hitting it as a mainboard card rather than never seeing it out of the board. I enjoy a bit of chaos in my brews. I was on a wrath of god main, but I think I like terminus better as it recycles our limited number of our boys while clearing their entire board, regardless of regen, hexproof, indo. We can always hard cast it late game, or put it on top with that new madness brainstorm spell if it's real.
The rest of the mainboard is fairly standard for the Tapout Beat-Down style / RtR block constructed deck you guys are calling Half & Half. I was on R/G tron but sold into the Kozilek's Return / pre-eldrazi hype and have been brewing this thing ever since. 25 lands feels like the right number, I've been practicing against fish a bunch, and we can really play the 'haha no islands' game really well, forcing them to waste resources trying to turn on island walk while we sphere, path and verdict their fry lords down.
The Sideboard is what it is. The batterskull was main and is currently holding on to the Sideboard, but may end up slipping out of the deck all together. The 2 disenchants might become wear/tear by swapping a Prairie Stream for a sacred foundry. Which continues the beg the Snapcaster plan..
Overwhelming Denial is another mainboard card that slipped to the side. I really like it vs ad nauseum and other pact decks, as it says, no, absolutely not. And it's sweet as an actual Counterspell when paired with a path or negate or something.
I feel like we have a super strong gameplan vs a fair number of the current field.
Eldrazi can't handle our consistent removal paired with GQ for their eye of ugin. I don't think it's worth it to give them back a land early game, it only slows them down a turn, but turning off their tutor before they get enough lands is great at closing out the game once you've crushed their early onslaught. The look on a drazi player's face when he Thought-Knots and sees 2 verdicts is priceless.
Fish is another very winnable match for us as well. We don't even really need anything out of the board to beat them. 4 verdicts, 4 paths, gideon and Elspeth are just too much for them to handle. They always complain that they flood out vs me, but 4 paths and going super late will do that to a deck with no filter that's used to winning t3 or bust.
I have not gotten to practice the burn, zoo pr 8-whack matches much, but I believe we are favored pretty well. If they're creature heavy we get value slam our verdicts, otherwise we have a fair amount of life gain and control, especially game 2 and 3.
Ad Nauseum is difficult, especially game one with so little counter magic. We can counter/sphere their early rocks and hope to race them, especially if we gain a ton of life, but if they've got mainboard pacts our mana leaks and cryptic just aren't enough.
Game 2 and 3 we can bring in all the life gain and disenchants and try and race the heck out of them. They can only do a maximum of 50 damage with no lands in play so we may very well be able to out race them. Especially if jace happens to hit some key pieces.
I have not gotten to test living end yet, but they're still just a creature deck. I think we can out value and eventually out race them.
Infect and boggles should both be fairly winnable, no iteration of this deck that I've played so far has had much of an issue with them. All the verdicts means they have to overextend super hard vs our value town deck. Porphyry Nodes is a lot of fun against them, but isn't currently in our 76.
Tron can be hard. G1 we've got to keep them off t3 Karning us to death by either playing early ghost quarters or having leak/t3 cryptic open when they untap and slam the 3rd piece. We also have to be fast enough that they never get Emrakul online.
G 2 and 3 we bring in some racing man's and some negates, we'd also bring in stony silences if we had them. All of their creature threats die to verdict or path. If we had surgical extractions we could try and wombo them with Jace.
GBx decks can be the bane of us. Early hand shred plus Lili with no Snapcaster can put a quick squirting on us. If we live through that however we have a pretty good late game compared to theirs. We ARE the UW Jund deck after all. Sphering a threat to make them overextend into a verdict and waste resources finding an abrupt decay is fun. Olivia Volderan main can be hard to deal with. Post board we get to take out all our decay targets and really up our overall threat count/ top deck war-winning cards. We can definitely out value them at their own game.. I like keeping land heavy hands vs these decks because it's fun to let them TS away something irrelevant and top deck all our sorcery speed beat down goodies.
I've been out of magic for a bit but I'm getting a decent end of year bonus so I'm thinking of building a deck. I've been working on this list for a bit and would like y'alls input. It's sort of counter-cat big kid zoo.
I've been out of magic for a bit but I'm getting a decent end of year bonus so I'm thinking of building a deck. I've been working on this list for a bit and would like y'alls input. It's sort of counter-cat big kid zoo.
Last night a buddy of mine and I were sitting around discussing decks when the idea to jam the 8 rhino package into an existing shell came up. Originally it was a joke, but after a few rounds of testing it became apparent that not only could the mana support it, it was fairly strong. Turns out controling the board until mid game as a normal esper shell and then dumping rhinos onto the table as your wincon is pretty strong.
The original iteration dropped the dragon package for a walker package (2 gideon, 2 ob, 1 narset). It lacked closing power as our Bring to Lights didn't get our walkers, so the newer version is actually 5 color so that you can BtL your Ojutai's.
People have talked about tapout control a bit on here, but this is that list you guys. This is only on day 1 of testing, so the mainboard spells are a bit of mess, but having the ability to cast any creature or spell in our deck on turn 5 is really really something to consider giving a try. It gets our boardwipes, our targeted removal, all of our boys, everything but a counter or a walker, but that's ok, it's still incredibly strong.
I have a feeling with a bit more testing this list is going to be the one I end up playing in paper for the upcoming weeks. The biggest consideration right now is what 5 or less CMC spells can we be running to really push this over the top? Right now it has no BtLable draw. Maybe just an Ugin's Insight? Scry 0-5 draw 3 isn't terrible.
So I've been playtesting with various lists on cockatrice for about a week now and figured I'd post some thoughts.
I started out on a 4 color (not green) dragons list that was mostly esper splash red for radiant flames and draconic roar, this list was the worst to me, lots of inconsistent draws and had too much 'drew the wrong side of my deck' issues.
After that failure I brewed for a few days on a straight esper dragon's list which I'll post below. It's still a work in progress.
Note, this list is a few days old at this point, so it doesn't have some of the more recent changes that the third list I'm going to post has, most notably, the 27th land which I really think is the correct number. it should be a 3rd Haven.
As for the deck itself, the creature package is pretty standard as are the spells. I wouldn't mind going to 3 dig especially because that's usually the first card I like to pitch to Jace for recasting later.
Horribly Awry is the best counter we've got and Foul-Tongue Invocation is the best spell we've got. Sometimes just casting it for lifegain is the right way to go.
Ojutai's Command isn't a counterspell, it's a sphinx's rev for 1 that gives extra life and that HAPPENS to sometimes sac a mode to counter a creature or bring a Jace back. I've won games off of eot Ojutai's life/draw mainphase flash back with jace, 8 life and 2 cards is pretty backbreaking.
Silumgar's Command is the ***** and the urine. I'd run more (maybe sb?) but the 5 cmc limits the spell. Every mode has use, often we end up bouncing a land for the tempo play, it has 3 of it's modes handles walkers, 'bounce your Hangerback kill your other buy' causes scoops. I really really like this card. I got a guy to ragequit the otherday who was stuck on 3 with 2 tangos, he plays a buy, I EOT kill the boy and bounce a tango.
Anyway other cards include Swift Reckoning, Ruinous Path, Reave Soul and Utter End. I like a mix, I always like a mix, but especially when each card has a very real drawback. Nothing is worse than staring down a guy with vigi or a manland with a handful of SR/ Ruinous Path, or a walker with SR, or fast guys with UE, etc etc. They all have uses, personally I don't like more than 2 SR main just because it's destroy (no gideon), and I think Utter End and Ruinous Path could both bump to a 2 of. Btw Reave Soul can never kill a manland on their turn, which really limits the card for me.
Sideboard
It's kind of a mess at the moment as I'm still shuffling numbers around but the main idea should be pretty clear.
Oblivion Sower is pretty legit vs decks that delve away lands (control) or where you might want another huge body with some incidental ramp)
A mix of counterspells for various situations, I've been liking Spell Shrivel more and more because of the single blue pip and the exile clause. Another Utter End for the Gideon decks. More wipes and small kill spells for fast decks. I will note after playing some mirror and U/W matchups that Planar OutBurst is is not only a bit stronger vs the field, but it's also stronger vs us than our Crux/languish are vs them. A consideration in a more W heavy list.
I'm going to make a second post for the other list that I've been working on recently as this one is getting long.
Tangos are kinda cool if you MB Bloodmoon and want to take as little damage as possible, outside of that I think they end up just being etb tapped duals that can be fetched.
The question is, what types of decks are they good vs, and which of those match ups do we want a dedicated finisher type card in.
Batterskull is good vs decks that mainboard bloodmoon or burn spells, we don't mind tapping out after they've mostly emptied their hand and the lifegain is worth the loss of of inevitably.
Similarly, we have trouble with combo sometimes, but both ad nauseum and scapeshift can be slowed and even beaten with enough lifegain.
Elspeth is great as an all around finisher, she has use vs G w/b x decks with goyfs, tasigur, the fish, loxodon smite, KotR sometimes, things like that. But we are already fairly strong to those types of decks usually.
She's a great 8 drop answer to Ulamog, and a 7 drop vs worldbreaker. I think she's fine vs smaller eldrazi although they'll already have hit you a bunch by the time she drops. She sweeps fish after they've already won.
I guess she slows 8 wack and elves down, but again, way to slow. Vs these types of decks I think we want more immediate answers to the decks she shines vs, by the time elspeth is online in most matches, any finisher/roadblock is going to work the same, often for less mana.
In the matches where batterskull shines it can halt agression, and in matches where it doesn't matter as much what we use to close out the game the extra lifegain really helps to pull our life total out of reach of blow outs/miscellaneous damage that can slip through and get us if we're low.
For reference here is the list I'm taking to GP Charlotte. It's still changing a little here and there, but it's pretty close to where I want it to be.
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Thoughtseize
3 Supreme Verdict
1 Batterskull
Instants - 25
2 Snapcaster Mage
4 Path to Exile
1 Doom Blade
1 Negate
3 Think Twice
1 Anguished Unmaking
4 Esper Charm
2 Dissolve
2 Cryptic Command
1 Overwhelming Denial
1 Logic Knot
2 Sphinx's Revelation
1 White Sun's Zenith
1 Jace, Memory Adept
1 Wrath of God
1 Rest in Peace
2 Stony Silence
1 Disenchant
2 Dispel
2 Negate
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Timely Reinforcements
2 Geist of Saint Traft
I am thinking of switching a negate and timely for 2 Leyline. I could also be convinced to switch to Elspeth, I just think batterskull is the better use of the slot based on what we need help Vs.
4 Village Messenger
4 Duskwatch Recruiter
4 Lambholt Pacifist
2 Hinterland Logger
4 Kessig Forgemaster
4 Breakneck Rider
4 Geier Reach Bandit
2 Atarka's Command
3 Howlpack Resurgence
4 Collected Company
3 Arlin Kord
22 lands
3 Act of Treason
3 Boiling Earth
3 Clip Wings
3 Pulse of Murasa
2 Moonlight Hunt
1 Atarka's Command
Game 1 we just want to fart power onto the board.
Game 2 we have plenty of answers for various strategies, from secure the wastes to Westvale Abby, we got answers.
Pathing a turd and surging it in has been really solid as well.
I'm also on one mainboard terminus, and it's been good to me. I had 2 for a while but I kept having one in my opener and it felt like a waste.
3 Wall of Omens
3 Kitchen Finks
2 Restoration Angel
1 Jace, Memory Adept
2 Gideon Jura
2 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1 Drogskol Reaver *
Non-Mans 22
1 Serum Visions
4 Path to Exile
2 Mana Leak
1 Mind Stone
2 Talisman of Progress
1 Azorius Keyrune *
1 Monastery Siege *
2 Detention Sphere
4 Supreme Verdict
2 Cryptic Command
1 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Terminus *
3 Plains
2 Island
2 Prarie Stream
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Windswept Heath
4 Flooded Strand
1 Glacial Fortress
2 Mystic Gate
4 Celestial Colonnade
3 Ghost Quarter
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Fracturing Gust *
2 Disenchant
1 Overwhelming Denial
3 Negate
1 Dispel
1 Spell Pierce *
1 Rest in Peace
1 Batterskull *
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Glen Elandra Archmage
2 Geist of Saint Traft
Cards with an asterisk are cards that are currently on trial for playtesting to see how they do. I was having an issue with 1 or 2 surgical extractions eating up my threats so I diversified, moving the Geists to the board and adding Jace MA back in along with a trial Drogskol Reaver. I kind of like him better than Ojutai as a late-game finisher as he refills both of our resources while providing a faster clock, plus, with our mana rock package he's a turn 4-5-6 play, not t7.
Speaking of our rocks, I really want to take a moment to talk about how sweet having a mana-rock package is. Right now I'm using 3 types of rocks, the Keyrune is a trial to see about adding a cheap threat, that also let's us cast our 5+ drops a turn early. It may just be better as a coalition relic or two, but it's the 2 drop rocks that really shine. We can play them out, hold open path and untap on 3 with a verdict. The 1 of mindstone is for late game cantriping.
Can you tell I've been craving a bit more draw in the deck? That's also why I've got MA and Monastery Siege. I like MA better than AoT because while he doesn't dig as deep when he lands, he draws more consistently if our opponent can't answer him. Yes, AoT shuts down souls and slows down agro, but gideon and verdict do the same already. MA throws the hands vs Lantern control, ad nauseum, and other random decks that can't handle losing 10 + cards from their library, let alone a 5 turn mill clock.
Our other new toy is the hilarious Monastery Siege, which I think is brilliant game one. It turns all our opponents bolts and atarka's commands and such into heavy mana investments, really slowing their game plan down to our speed. Game 2 we take out all our enchants to turn their D revs into a dead draw (although it's kind of funny turning a DRev into a 4 drop) Late game we can drop it and dig for whatever we need, pitching extra mana leaks and rocks to it doesn't really hurt us. Though it is yet another point towards wanting a pair of Snapcasters main, something I don't currently own.
Terminus as a one of seemed too good to not at least try out, call it the 61st card if you like instead of the serum visions (which offers the ever spicey set up of t3 visions with 2 mana and a mind stone open, response to opponents combat crack mindstone, Terminus.) if you like. I like the odds of randomly hitting it as a mainboard card rather than never seeing it out of the board. I enjoy a bit of chaos in my brews. I was on a wrath of god main, but I think I like terminus better as it recycles our limited number of our boys while clearing their entire board, regardless of regen, hexproof, indo. We can always hard cast it late game, or put it on top with that new madness brainstorm spell if it's real.
The rest of the mainboard is fairly standard for the Tapout Beat-Down style / RtR block constructed deck you guys are calling Half & Half. I was on R/G tron but sold into the Kozilek's Return / pre-eldrazi hype and have been brewing this thing ever since. 25 lands feels like the right number, I've been practicing against fish a bunch, and we can really play the 'haha no islands' game really well, forcing them to waste resources trying to turn on island walk while we sphere, path and verdict their fry lords down.
The Sideboard is what it is. The batterskull was main and is currently holding on to the Sideboard, but may end up slipping out of the deck all together. The 2 disenchants might become wear/tear by swapping a Prairie Stream for a sacred foundry. Which continues the beg the Snapcaster plan..
Overwhelming Denial is another mainboard card that slipped to the side. I really like it vs ad nauseum and other pact decks, as it says, no, absolutely not. And it's sweet as an actual Counterspell when paired with a path or negate or something.
I feel like we have a super strong gameplan vs a fair number of the current field.
Eldrazi can't handle our consistent removal paired with GQ for their eye of ugin. I don't think it's worth it to give them back a land early game, it only slows them down a turn, but turning off their tutor before they get enough lands is great at closing out the game once you've crushed their early onslaught. The look on a drazi player's face when he Thought-Knots and sees 2 verdicts is priceless.
Fish is another very winnable match for us as well. We don't even really need anything out of the board to beat them. 4 verdicts, 4 paths, gideon and Elspeth are just too much for them to handle. They always complain that they flood out vs me, but 4 paths and going super late will do that to a deck with no filter that's used to winning t3 or bust.
I have not gotten to practice the burn, zoo pr 8-whack matches much, but I believe we are favored pretty well. If they're creature heavy we get value slam our verdicts, otherwise we have a fair amount of life gain and control, especially game 2 and 3.
Ad Nauseum is difficult, especially game one with so little counter magic. We can counter/sphere their early rocks and hope to race them, especially if we gain a ton of life, but if they've got mainboard pacts our mana leaks and cryptic just aren't enough.
Game 2 and 3 we can bring in all the life gain and disenchants and try and race the heck out of them. They can only do a maximum of 50 damage with no lands in play so we may very well be able to out race them. Especially if jace happens to hit some key pieces.
I have not gotten to test living end yet, but they're still just a creature deck. I think we can out value and eventually out race them.
Infect and boggles should both be fairly winnable, no iteration of this deck that I've played so far has had much of an issue with them. All the verdicts means they have to overextend super hard vs our value town deck. Porphyry Nodes is a lot of fun against them, but isn't currently in our 76.
Tron can be hard. G1 we've got to keep them off t3 Karning us to death by either playing early ghost quarters or having leak/t3 cryptic open when they untap and slam the 3rd piece. We also have to be fast enough that they never get Emrakul online.
G 2 and 3 we bring in some racing man's and some negates, we'd also bring in stony silences if we had them. All of their creature threats die to verdict or path. If we had surgical extractions we could try and wombo them with Jace.
GBx decks can be the bane of us. Early hand shred plus Lili with no Snapcaster can put a quick squirting on us. If we live through that however we have a pretty good late game compared to theirs. We ARE the UW Jund deck after all. Sphering a threat to make them overextend into a verdict and waste resources finding an abrupt decay is fun. Olivia Volderan main can be hard to deal with. Post board we get to take out all our decay targets and really up our overall threat count/ top deck war-winning cards. We can definitely out value them at their own game.. I like keeping land heavy hands vs these decks because it's fun to let them TS away something irrelevant and top deck all our sorcery speed beat down goodies.
Thoughts?
I've been out of magic for a bit but I'm getting a decent end of year bonus so I'm thinking of building a deck. I've been working on this list for a bit and would like y'alls input. It's sort of counter-cat big kid zoo.
4 Wild Nacatl
3 Noble Hierarch
2 Birds of Paradise
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Snapcaster Mage
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Loxodon Smiter
2 Kitchen Finks
2 Rhox War Monk
Non-Creature Spells 19
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Path to Exile
2 Serum Visions
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Spell Pierce
1 Faithless Looting
2 Remand
1 Mana Leak
1 Lightning Helix
1 Boros Charm
1 Simic Charm
2 Collected Company
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Wooded Foothills
2 Windswept Heath
3 Flooded Strand
1 Arid Mesa
1 Stomping Ground
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Breeding Pool
1 Temple Garden
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Steam Vents
1 Island
1 Forest
1 Plains
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Spellskite
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Kitaki, War's Wage
2 Izzet Staticaster
1 Bloodmoon
1 Path to Exile
2 Destructive Revelry (might swith for Qasali Pride mage it split)
2 Negate
1 Dispel
What do you guys think?
edit: Random thought, anyone ever try Basilisk Collar in the main? Seems decent to gain life, and with staticaster in the board..
4 Wild Nacatl
3 Noble Hierarch
2 Birds of Paradise
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Snapcaster Mage
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Loxodon Smiter
2 Kitchen Finks
2 Rhox War Monk
Non-Creature Spells 19
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Path to Exile
2 Serum Visions
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Spell Pierce
1 Faithless Looting
2 Remand
1 Mana Leak
1 Lightning Helix
1 Boros Charm
1 Simic Charm
2 Collected Company
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Wooded Foothills
2 Windswept Heath
3 Flooded Strand
1 Arid Mesa
1 Stomping Ground
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Breeding Pool
1 Temple Garden
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Steam Vents
1 Island
1 Forest
1 Plains
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Spellskite
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Kitaki, War's Wage
2 Izzet Staticaster
1 Bloodmoon
1 Path to Exile
2 Destructive Revelry (might swith for Qasali Pride mage it split)
2 Negate
1 Dispel
What do you guys think?
The original iteration dropped the dragon package for a walker package (2 gideon, 2 ob, 1 narset). It lacked closing power as our Bring to Lights didn't get our walkers, so the newer version is actually 5 color so that you can BtL your Ojutai's.
3 Jace, Vyrn's Prodigy
4 Siege Rhino
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Canopy Vista
1 Cinder Glade
3 Flooded Strand
2 Haven of the Spirit Dragon
1 Island
2 Lumbering Falls
1 Plains
4 Polluted Delta
3 Prairie Stream
2 Shambling Vent
1 Smoldering Marsh
3 Sunken Hollow
1 Swamp
1 Wooded Foothills
4 Bring to Light
2 Crux of Fate
2 Languish
1 Ruinous Path
1 Swift Reckoning
3 Dig Through Time
2 Foul-Tongue Invocation
1 Horribly Awry
2 Ojutai's Command
1 Silumgar's Command
2 Silumgar's Scorn
2 SPell Shrivel
1 Utter End
1 Oblivion Sower
1 Foul-Tongue Invocation
2 Horribly Awry
2 Negate
1 Scatter to the Winds
1 Utter End
2 Gideon, ally of Zendikar
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
2 Languish
2 Reave Soul
People have talked about tapout control a bit on here, but this is that list you guys. This is only on day 1 of testing, so the mainboard spells are a bit of mess, but having the ability to cast any creature or spell in our deck on turn 5 is really really something to consider giving a try. It gets our boardwipes, our targeted removal, all of our boys, everything but a counter or a walker, but that's ok, it's still incredibly strong.
I have a feeling with a bit more testing this list is going to be the one I end up playing in paper for the upcoming weeks. The biggest consideration right now is what 5 or less CMC spells can we be running to really push this over the top? Right now it has no BtLable draw. Maybe just an Ugin's Insight? Scry 0-5 draw 3 isn't terrible.
Thoughts?
I started out on a 4 color (not green) dragons list that was mostly esper splash red for radiant flames and draconic roar, this list was the worst to me, lots of inconsistent draws and had too much 'drew the wrong side of my deck' issues.
After that failure I brewed for a few days on a straight esper dragon's list which I'll post below. It's still a work in progress.
3 Dragonlord Ojutai
1 Dragonlord Silumgar
3 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
1 Silumgar, the Drifting Death
Spells
2 Dig Through Time
1 Dragonlord's Prerogative
2 Foul-Tongue Invocation
2 Horribly Awry
2 Ojutai's Command
2 Silumgar's Scorn
2 Spell Shrivel
1 Utter End
2 Crux of Fate
2 Languish
2 Reave Soul
1 Ruinous Path
2 Swift Reckoning
2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
Lands
4 Flooded Strand
2 Haven of the Spirit Dragon
2 Island
1 Plains
4 Polluted Delta
4 Prairie Stream
4 Shambling Vent
4 Sunken Hollow
1 Swamp
1 Oblivion Sower
1 Foul-Tongue Invocation
2 Horribly Awry
2 Negate
1 Scatter to the Winds
1 Utter End
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
2 Languish
1 Planar Outburst
1 Reave Soul
2 Swift Reckoning
Note, this list is a few days old at this point, so it doesn't have some of the more recent changes that the third list I'm going to post has, most notably, the 27th land which I really think is the correct number. it should be a 3rd Haven.
As for the deck itself, the creature package is pretty standard as are the spells. I wouldn't mind going to 3 dig especially because that's usually the first card I like to pitch to Jace for recasting later.
Horribly Awry is the best counter we've got and Foul-Tongue Invocation is the best spell we've got. Sometimes just casting it for lifegain is the right way to go.
Ojutai's Command isn't a counterspell, it's a sphinx's rev for 1 that gives extra life and that HAPPENS to sometimes sac a mode to counter a creature or bring a Jace back. I've won games off of eot Ojutai's life/draw mainphase flash back with jace, 8 life and 2 cards is pretty backbreaking.
Silumgar's Command is the ***** and the urine. I'd run more (maybe sb?) but the 5 cmc limits the spell. Every mode has use, often we end up bouncing a land for the tempo play, it has 3 of it's modes handles walkers, 'bounce your Hangerback kill your other buy' causes scoops. I really really like this card. I got a guy to ragequit the otherday who was stuck on 3 with 2 tangos, he plays a buy, I EOT kill the boy and bounce a tango.
Anyway other cards include Swift Reckoning, Ruinous Path, Reave Soul and Utter End. I like a mix, I always like a mix, but especially when each card has a very real drawback. Nothing is worse than staring down a guy with vigi or a manland with a handful of SR/ Ruinous Path, or a walker with SR, or fast guys with UE, etc etc. They all have uses, personally I don't like more than 2 SR main just because it's destroy (no gideon), and I think Utter End and Ruinous Path could both bump to a 2 of. Btw Reave Soul can never kill a manland on their turn, which really limits the card for me.
Sideboard
It's kind of a mess at the moment as I'm still shuffling numbers around but the main idea should be pretty clear.
Oblivion Sower is pretty legit vs decks that delve away lands (control) or where you might want another huge body with some incidental ramp)
A mix of counterspells for various situations, I've been liking Spell Shrivel more and more because of the single blue pip and the exile clause. Another Utter End for the Gideon decks. More wipes and small kill spells for fast decks. I will note after playing some mirror and U/W matchups that Planar OutBurst is is not only a bit stronger vs the field, but it's also stronger vs us than our Crux/languish are vs them. A consideration in a more W heavy list.
I'm going to make a second post for the other list that I've been working on recently as this one is getting long.
edit: Cracking a fetch in response to twin being cast is hilarious.