Push was very important for its ability to hit Noble Heirarch or Goblin Guide turn 1. Lowering the average CMC in the deck is great. If it's ever really dead you can side it out.
The best thing about Hidden Stockpile is that it doesn't die to a lightning bolt. The second best thing about Hidden Stockpile is that you can scry away dead draws anytime someone spends a card to kill one of your creatures. The scry is a more important part of the card than I had originally anticipated.
You don't need to get a lot of servos right away because the game will usually go long. (Though there are occasionally very aggressive 3+ early servo hands.)
Using the planeswalkers correctly is very important. Sorin and Liliana both can steal games. I know there are games I lost because didn't go for the ultimate immediately when I had the chance, or didn't plan to protect them in the right way, especially in choosing what to discard to Liliana.
The servo tokens benefiting from Sorin's +1 is why I went up to 2 copies, but it's also good that Sorin is a “threat” that doesn't die to a regular sweeper. I wanted another threat that doesn't die to Anger of the Gods and I ended up with Brimaz. I think the deck does need at least 1 card that can be a quick clock, whatever your preferred creature is.
I've played against Bant Eldrazi a number of times recently. Their curve makes them susceptible to letting you pick off the things in their hand the turn before they can play it. If you have 2 removal spells in hand, Thoughtknot isn't that bad since it gives you a card back. The worst case is if they get back-to-back Reality Smashers. Zealous Persecution is good against the scion tokens.
To have a chance against Tron I like to bring in 2 Anguished Unmaking, 2 Thoughtseize, and 2 Stony Silence. Stony is important against Oblivion Stone, and Map if you get it early enough.
Burn is rough if you don't draw a Sorin or some hate card. Or if you draw too many Lingering Souls instead of discard and removal. I did get unlucky twice this weekend where I would use Sculler, see no Searing Blaze, then they immediately draw a Searing Blaze so the Sculler doesn't manage to save me even 3 damage. Since I added the Anguished Unmaking to the sideboard (mostly for Planeswalkers) I could probably go down to 1 Disenchant and maybe put in another Leyline of Sanctity.
A lot of matchups are all about removing all their creatures on a good curve. Again, Push is really good. Push early and often and prevent the Merfolk from ganging up on you.
I don't currently have any plans to change the main deck, I like it how it is.
I could see putting in 1 Plains as the 23rd land, but it hasn't hurt me too much not having it.
I dropped the Shambling Vents when I put in the 2 Polluted Delta. I didn't want to give up casting turn 1 or 2, especially with wanting to give Stockpile a chance and Inquisition being so important. I'll try to pay attention to how much I miss them – they were good on an empty board, but putting 4 mana into it usually meant I wasn't doing anything else that turn. There's never been a time I would activate two at once. For people for don't like Gatekeeper as much as I do, I guess you would turn some of those slots into lands 23 and 24 for the vents.
A week before, I did a 4 round event with mostly the same deck but -1 Sorin, -1 Brimaz, -1 Push, +2 Collective Brutality, +1 Hidden Stockpile. Brutality always seemed worse than Push at 2 mana and sorcery speed. It was also harder to guess when the opponent would have an instant or sorcery to discard than I expected.
Push is incidentally also good against Affinity, whether it's an early Signal Pest or a Blinkmoth.
The highlight was Hidden Stockpile preventing Jund's Maelstrom Pulse from blowing out my Spirits at the last minute. But other than that I was never really behind because I had so much removal.
Skred I basically had no chance against. Anger into Koth into Emblem, and having to play around Blood Moon was too much. This is what made me want the Anguished Unmaking in the sideboard.
I probably got lucky against Lantern. Started the sideboard games with removal for Bridge in hand. Sorin sped up the clock along with a lot of Servos. It was good that the Stockpile doesn't require extra mana investment to make servos so I could keep putting more stuff onto the board at the same time.
From what I've seen so far Stockpile is good against Jund and should be good against Grixis. In match ups where it isn't amazing, the important thing is that it doesn't just eat a removal spell and leave you nothing like a creature would.
It looks like it only misses the Savannah, compared to what Catacombs would get.
It's probably because it was reprinted and costs less. Or maybe they were all influenced by each other/the same source.
Marginal reasons I can think of:
1. Diversify so 1 Pithing Needle can't hit them all.
2. Trick people into thinking you're playing a blue deck turn one.
3. Maybe sometimes they run 1 Tundra instead of a Plains for their Engineered Explosives and didn't feel like changing the fetches.
I was thinking of a version that replaces the 4-drop creatures with a full set of Hidden Stockpile.
I want to use it for the same role as Lingering Souls, spreading my creatures out so they're hard to deal with all at once.
When Bitterblossom was first unbanned I tried running 2 of them. The problem was how slow it was. You didn't get a token until next turn and couldn't attack until the turn after that. That made it bad to topdeck and only okay early, and the life loss could get dangerous if you played multiples but weren't able to keep other threats alive and attacking.
I want to try Hidden Stockpile because it seems to avoid many of the problems Bitterblossom had. If you play it turn two after a fetchland, you get your token right away. It is good in multiples because all the copies trigger from only one permanent leaving play - even if you always had to fetch to get the token, the one life from the fetch doesn't scale the way the damage from Bitterblossom does.
It can also save you from damage by letting you sacrifice a Dark Confidant that has outlived its usefulness.
Having out one or more Stockpiles makes trading when attacking better because you get an (untapped!) token back out of it.
I already want to enable revolt for Fatal Push. To accommodate Push and Stockpile, I'm planning to go from 8 fetches up to 10.
Time will tell whether I end up feeling like I'm running a worse Raise the Alarm or if I feel like I turned all my late game land draws into Spectral Processions.
Other cards I've been thinking about:
Gifted Aetherborn: comes down earlier than Nighthawk. Trades with big creatures when blocking and gains life attacking if they don't want to spend time killing it. Better than Ayli if you don't need the sacrifice ability. Versatile threat but still not that great of a clock.
Smuggler's Copter: play it on turn two instead of your Dark Confidant to avoid giving them good tempo off the removal they held up. Play the Confidant next turn and crew to make them choose what to hit. After a sweeper flashback Lingering Souls and let the Spirits drive immediately.
Flying lets it push through damage where my bears get stuck on the ground by unfavorable trades. Even a Brimaz can get stuck on the ground relatively easily.
Vigilance keeps it up to hold off their bears and dorks. Also can block Pestermites and Affinity's fliers.
Low mana cost helps pick up tempo by being able to potentially cast Inquistion, Path, or an additional creature the turn it comes out.
Doesn't die to pyroclasm the way almost everything else in the deck does.
No drawback that applies while in play, so it fits with the long game the deck tries to play.
The first downside is that it does die to bolt. But I already have a lot of targets they want to bolt anyway, the removal might be saturated.
And second, I can't play it on the first three turns. But it seems likely I'll have other action to play on those turns.
Bloodghast is good against other midrange decks, and some control decks. If I was expecting to play against a lot of Abzhan and Jund, I would consider Bloodghast. In every match against an aggro deck, Bloodghast was a dead card since it can't block and doesn't make us faster. Same thing against even slow combo, it doesn't make us faster except in fringe scenarios, so they can just ignore it. Basically, it's only good against decks that want to kill creatures.
In terms of it getting blocked by stronger creatures, I'm on 4 Gatekeepers in addition to the 7 instant removal, so that might have been what avoided that problem for me. Abzhan decks generally had to bring in graveyard hate just for Bloodghast, because it screws up their removal plan so much.
Storywise, the most important information I take from this card is that when Jace and Ugin disagreed about what to do, Ugin cast lightning at Jace, which Jace had to counter. When Jace says the arguments were unconvincing, he is presumably referring to the attack in the art as one the "arguments" Ugin is making. The question will be if this was one big misunderstanding that everyone will get over, or if this encounter will set the tone for Ugin's interaction with all the other walkers.
4 Dark Confidant
4 Tidehollow Sculler
3 Gatekeeper of Malakir
1 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
Enchantments (3)
3 Hidden Stockpile
Planeswalkers (5)
3 Liliana of the Veil
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
Sorceries (10)
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
4 Lingering Souls
4 Fatal Push
4 Path to Exile
Lands (22)
4 Marsh Flats
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Polluted Delta
4 Godless Shrine
4 Concealed Courtyard
4 Swamp
2 Zealous Persecution
2 Anguished Unmaking
2 Thoughtseize
2 Disenchant
2 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Stony Silence
3 Rest in Peace
This is what I used for side events at GP Pittsburgh.
3-round single elimination (1 win)
Jund (2-0)
UW Sun Titan Control (1-2)
4-round swiss (4-0)
Merfolk (2-1)
Knightfall (2-1)
8-whack (2-1)
Slivers (2-0)
3-round single elimination (2 wins)
Burn (2-1)
GR Land Destruction (2-0)
GR Tron (1-2)
1-round Turbo (1 win)
Madcap Emperion (2-1)
5-round swiss (3-1-1)
Bant Eldrazi (2-0)
Jeskai Kiki (2-0)
Burn (0-2)
Bant Eldrazi (2-1)
Abzan Coco (ID)
Push was very important for its ability to hit Noble Heirarch or Goblin Guide turn 1. Lowering the average CMC in the deck is great. If it's ever really dead you can side it out.
The best thing about Hidden Stockpile is that it doesn't die to a lightning bolt. The second best thing about Hidden Stockpile is that you can scry away dead draws anytime someone spends a card to kill one of your creatures. The scry is a more important part of the card than I had originally anticipated.
You don't need to get a lot of servos right away because the game will usually go long. (Though there are occasionally very aggressive 3+ early servo hands.)
Using the planeswalkers correctly is very important. Sorin and Liliana both can steal games. I know there are games I lost because didn't go for the ultimate immediately when I had the chance, or didn't plan to protect them in the right way, especially in choosing what to discard to Liliana.
The servo tokens benefiting from Sorin's +1 is why I went up to 2 copies, but it's also good that Sorin is a “threat” that doesn't die to a regular sweeper. I wanted another threat that doesn't die to Anger of the Gods and I ended up with Brimaz. I think the deck does need at least 1 card that can be a quick clock, whatever your preferred creature is.
I've played against Bant Eldrazi a number of times recently. Their curve makes them susceptible to letting you pick off the things in their hand the turn before they can play it. If you have 2 removal spells in hand, Thoughtknot isn't that bad since it gives you a card back. The worst case is if they get back-to-back Reality Smashers. Zealous Persecution is good against the scion tokens.
To have a chance against Tron I like to bring in 2 Anguished Unmaking, 2 Thoughtseize, and 2 Stony Silence. Stony is important against Oblivion Stone, and Map if you get it early enough.
Burn is rough if you don't draw a Sorin or some hate card. Or if you draw too many Lingering Souls instead of discard and removal. I did get unlucky twice this weekend where I would use Sculler, see no Searing Blaze, then they immediately draw a Searing Blaze so the Sculler doesn't manage to save me even 3 damage. Since I added the Anguished Unmaking to the sideboard (mostly for Planeswalkers) I could probably go down to 1 Disenchant and maybe put in another Leyline of Sanctity.
A lot of matchups are all about removing all their creatures on a good curve. Again, Push is really good. Push early and often and prevent the Merfolk from ganging up on you.
I don't currently have any plans to change the main deck, I like it how it is.
I could see putting in 1 Plains as the 23rd land, but it hasn't hurt me too much not having it.
I dropped the Shambling Vents when I put in the 2 Polluted Delta. I didn't want to give up casting turn 1 or 2, especially with wanting to give Stockpile a chance and Inquisition being so important. I'll try to pay attention to how much I miss them – they were good on an empty board, but putting 4 mana into it usually meant I wasn't doing anything else that turn. There's never been a time I would activate two at once. For people for don't like Gatekeeper as much as I do, I guess you would turn some of those slots into lands 23 and 24 for the vents.
A week before, I did a 4 round event with mostly the same deck but -1 Sorin, -1 Brimaz, -1 Push, +2 Collective Brutality, +1 Hidden Stockpile. Brutality always seemed worse than Push at 2 mana and sorcery speed. It was also harder to guess when the opponent would have an instant or sorcery to discard than I expected.
(3-1)
Jund (2-0)
Skred (0-2)
Affinity (2-1)
Lantern (2-1)
Push is incidentally also good against Affinity, whether it's an early Signal Pest or a Blinkmoth.
The highlight was Hidden Stockpile preventing Jund's Maelstrom Pulse from blowing out my Spirits at the last minute. But other than that I was never really behind because I had so much removal.
Skred I basically had no chance against. Anger into Koth into Emblem, and having to play around Blood Moon was too much. This is what made me want the Anguished Unmaking in the sideboard.
I probably got lucky against Lantern. Started the sideboard games with removal for Bridge in hand. Sorin sped up the clock along with a lot of Servos. It was good that the Stockpile doesn't require extra mana investment to make servos so I could keep putting more stuff onto the board at the same time.
From what I've seen so far Stockpile is good against Jund and should be good against Grixis. In match ups where it isn't amazing, the important thing is that it doesn't just eat a removal spell and leave you nothing like a creature would.
It's probably because it was reprinted and costs less. Or maybe they were all influenced by each other/the same source.
Marginal reasons I can think of:
1. Diversify so 1 Pithing Needle can't hit them all.
2. Trick people into thinking you're playing a blue deck turn one.
3. Maybe sometimes they run 1 Tundra instead of a Plains for their Engineered Explosives and didn't feel like changing the fetches.
I want to use it for the same role as Lingering Souls, spreading my creatures out so they're hard to deal with all at once.
When Bitterblossom was first unbanned I tried running 2 of them. The problem was how slow it was. You didn't get a token until next turn and couldn't attack until the turn after that. That made it bad to topdeck and only okay early, and the life loss could get dangerous if you played multiples but weren't able to keep other threats alive and attacking.
I want to try Hidden Stockpile because it seems to avoid many of the problems Bitterblossom had. If you play it turn two after a fetchland, you get your token right away. It is good in multiples because all the copies trigger from only one permanent leaving play - even if you always had to fetch to get the token, the one life from the fetch doesn't scale the way the damage from Bitterblossom does.
It can also save you from damage by letting you sacrifice a Dark Confidant that has outlived its usefulness.
Having out one or more Stockpiles makes trading when attacking better because you get an (untapped!) token back out of it.
I already want to enable revolt for Fatal Push. To accommodate Push and Stockpile, I'm planning to go from 8 fetches up to 10.
Time will tell whether I end up feeling like I'm running a worse Raise the Alarm or if I feel like I turned all my late game land draws into Spectral Processions.
Other cards I've been thinking about:
Gifted Aetherborn: comes down earlier than Nighthawk. Trades with big creatures when blocking and gains life attacking if they don't want to spend time killing it. Better than Ayli if you don't need the sacrifice ability. Versatile threat but still not that great of a clock.
Smuggler's Copter: play it on turn two instead of your Dark Confidant to avoid giving them good tempo off the removal they held up. Play the Confidant next turn and crew to make them choose what to hit. After a sweeper flashback Lingering Souls and let the Spirits drive immediately.
My thoughts are:
The first downside is that it does die to bolt. But I already have a lot of targets they want to bolt anyway, the removal might be saturated.
And second, I can't play it on the first three turns. But it seems likely I'll have other action to play on those turns.
In terms of it getting blocked by stronger creatures, I'm on 4 Gatekeepers in addition to the 7 instant removal, so that might have been what avoided that problem for me. Abzhan decks generally had to bring in graveyard hate just for Bloodghast, because it screws up their removal plan so much.