Hey dudes, so i'm going to be taking the following deck to SCG Louisville this weekend because I think it'll be fun. I'm kind of lost on the SB for this deck though, I haven't played it too much, this is my first event bigger than an FNM with it.
Now obviously the sideboard is really weak. I have two slots that still need filling, but I have no idea what to fill them with. I don't particularly want to pick up leyline or pact of negs, but I can get some number of boseju for the counterspells. Like I said, this will be my first experience outside of FNM, so I'm not sure how good players will handle against the deck, which is why i'm trying to throw them off with the potential for a turn 1/2 blood moon on top of the other busted stuff the deck can do.
I'm wondering how my sideboard could get better, as well as what you guys take out / put in for certain matchups. Do you ever take out like, the shoal package to put a bunch of hate in? do you trim on draw spells like looting?
I realize that this a necro from heckro, but I was digging through the forums today and noticed this idea.
I really liked it, and have since bought up my own list that is currently undefeated on the day in the tournament practice room, going against Living end x2, mono red hate cards (it was like the free win red deck, but played a bunch of clunkers and weird things like zozu the punisher), Jund, and Eldrazi tron, among another 4-5 bad homebrews.
So far it's been really sweet. People see the boarderposts and expect to be up against some weird restore balance deck or something, so when you counter their spells they're thrown off guard, the side offers two of the best hate cards in the format in needle and relic which have single-handedly won me a couple of games today, and the colossus being able to sac two thopters to come back for free is just back breaking for the one-for-one decks. With the thopter sword package in, the deck has a lot more reach (literally), and can recover much more nicely than I assume some of the other versions in the thread are able to. The deck is very very weak to artifact hate, but honestly there's not too much of that going around right now except for a renegade stony silence, not many people are packing their shatterstorms like they used to. I feel like this sort of strategy could get somewhere with enough work. I'm still leery of course because i've only tested against a few decks in the format, but it plays very well against everything i've played so far.
So i've been playing WC for a few months now as an audible deck for when I scout the field and I think that my main deck, tron, might be a bad choice due to aggro decks.
I'd have to say that this archetype is so much better when you decide what you want to win against and what you are comfortable taking a loss to if it shows up. I play W<> because it just wrecks every aggro deck in the format. Other versions may be more adept at taking on control or combo decks as in the UW versions. If you want to just stomp on jund all day, maybe GW with like thragtusks and finks would be the correct course.
Just wanted to point out that this deck gets better if you don't look at it as a deck that needs to beat every deck it could possibly go up against. over 1000 random matches. This is, in my experience, a meta call deck and works so much better if you treat it as such. Don't just assume that what works for one person will work for you as well.
@ Rhandall
I mean that's not really the same deck. I feel like that deck would just be UG and use PHM to get extra benefit off of Glint nest and puzzleknots and just be a combo deck. I'd say throw a list together and try it out, but it wouldn't be this same deck.
Eerie Interlude provides some of the deck's most explosive comebacks, I highly advise against nixing it. It's one of the best cards to draw once a PHM has resolved because like BtL it's just another copy of every awesome creature in your deck.
So the reason that the deck is five color isn't actually bring to light in my opinion. BTL is a good card and being able to find some silver bullets later game is nice, but standing on that strategy alone does not win games. This is a gearhulk deck, not a Birthing pod deck. Before I ran the gearhulks I was all in on BtL even including Whirler Virtuoso Aetherstorm Roc combo, and the deck was just trash. Gearhulks make and break the deck. My version is basically me conceding to that and saying that i'm just going to fully build around them. It's a bant deck that splashes Noxious and Radiant flames, that's really where the five colors come from. I don't even run red main anymore because there just aren't any red cards that are worth running.
With the fact that this is a gearhulk deck in mind, Gearsmith is just an amazing card. It often just wins games against the likes of control and other midrange decks because it effectively counters up to 4 of their removal spells. The deck is entirely artifacts, so let's work that into our strategy with the gearsmith and inventor's fair.
@Anyone in general: Thoughts on Skyship? I included it as a bullet against Planeswalkers but i've found that just pumping up a crane usually answers them anyway. You think it's worth the include? If not, I'd like to try out Gonti or whatever his name is. This is basically my one very flexible slot so I want to see what fits best.
Gah, I love this deck. However i've had an impossible time against RW Vehicles. Probably because I wasn't running any black gearhulks (or any gearhulks at all b/c i'm a scrub), but i've fixed that now. Here's what i'm working with:
So i've adjusted my sideboard to basically strictly cards to bring in against RW that also have play in other matchups. Ok, that's a bit excessive, but the deck seems a lot more tuned to fight the aggro decks because that's all I intend to play against forever at my LGS.
Notes: The Gearsmith is actually the best late game card there is. Recycling gearhulks for use again after a cataclysmic, negating the usefulness of the opponent's Appetites or other artifact destruction... Obviously Eternal witness is a good card, this just has better stats and triggers like 12 times in this deck. It's worth playing.
I'm going down to one bring to light because it's the worst card in the deck. I mean, it's every card, but it's 5 mana which is too steep. I can see why Seth was trying out Eldritch Evolution.
I'm not sold on TKS in the deck without Evolution, there's only like 5 sources that can cast it, it's pretty rough. If you build around it in like a bant colored version (so 4 color), it might have more merit but i'm not a fan right now.
Well the long and short of this deck is basically that we're trying to win the game with the reservoir while also having a bunch of game against a good portion of this highly aggressive modern meta of today. Know what's good against aggressive decks? Soul sisters. Know what's good with the Reservoir? Soul sisters. Let's take a peek at a deck list.
So if the idea here wasn't obvious, we're trying to accumulate a mass of creatures on the board to help trigger the Tumblr package, use Panharmonicon to get #DoubleTriggered, gain a billion life, and blast our aetherflux all over our opponent's face. The deck goes a lot deeper on the old Soul Sister package than the traditional deck, using 4x Genesis chamber to both flood the board with chump blockers and dudes to trigger the ladies.
Basically in this world full of creatures going into combat, you just want to gain life and chump block for decades, then in traditional white weenie style, ya just kind of win eventually.
B-B-B-Breakdown:
12x Soul Sisters, these should be obvious. Suture Priest sometimes also deals a ton of damage in conjunction with Genesis Chamber, though that is not the main plan of action.
Ajani's Pridemate: Backup win condition, average size and shape by turn 5 is a 20/20. With a turn one sister, turn two Chamber, turn three sister and pridemate, dude's already up to a 2 mana 6/6, and just gets bigger and bigger. Easily chump blocked, but hey, The Abyss is a pretty good card.
Eldrazi Displacer: Helps wrack up the triggers in the late game when we're out of cards in hand. Bounce a sister with three others in play, get a myr, gain 7 life all for 3 mana. Also helps enable some of the utility creatures in the deck.
Wall of omens: Strictly to be used in tandem with Displacer in the late game to get more gas.
Inquisitor exarch: Useful for beating decks that want to use Worship or Ensnaring bridge, as well as just gaining more life should the sister plan be lacking.
Path to Exile / Oblivion ring: General removal so that we don't die, a necessary evil for the deck. ORing also helps take out planeswalkers which we can sometimes have issues against.
Aetherflux Reservoir: Essentially Tendrils of Agony, but an artifact and also backwards. We're loaded up with 1 mana spells that we can chain together if we want to go on the win more plan, but very seldom does this card gain more than 1 or 3 life per turn. However, this is the main win condition of the deck because basically no other deck can get up to 50 life to beat it.
Panharmonicon: We're a deck that wants 40 triggers in a turn anyway, may as well make it 80. helps to push us out of reach in the mid to late game.
Genesis chamber: the secret all star of the deck, basically with the 12 sisters we are capable of gaining huge amounts of life from this card every turn. It also doubles the triggers we get from opponent's creatures, which is sweet.
Westvale Abbey: just something I thought would be fun as an alternate win condition. With the number of genesis tokens we have, it'd be surprising if we didn't flip this immediately. Basically just another threat that the opponent has to deal with.
Ghost Quarter: Aside from tapping for colorless mana, this also helps disrupt some of the more prominent strategies in the format such as Titanshift and Tron.
Battlefield Forge: Gotta have dual lands, and this one is one of the cheapest $$$.
The sideboard is just a generic list of good cards in white. Brave the Elements or Rootborn defenses would probably be something to consider because board wipes hurt a lot. A Sun Titan / Emeria package may also be playable for those drawn out games. Hard to tell without playtesting though.
Anyway, this is just me toying around with some of the new kaladesh cards. Let me know if you have any better ideas for what could go in this deck.
I am currently running mono white with the station combo included. Really, the combo has only proven useful against thopter foundry decks because as buddy guy said, if you stick a titan you're probably winning anyway. I'm sure that it's probably useful against lantern as well, so if those two decks are prevalent in your area I'd say go all in on that combo. Otherwise, I have the station as a one of, hunter as a two of because I like its utility.
As for the rest of the deck, I run 4 finks and 2 missionaries, and they really do work. Finks in UW's missionary slot, and missionary is going halfsies on the court hussar slot with fiend hunter. In mono white, you have a bit of room for experimentation, for example I am running a one of Sunbeam Spellbomb as well as an additional source of lifegain to try and help put me out of range agaisnt decks like burn and storm, as well as a source of sacable card advantage if I can't get a station to stick. You have a lot more room to try out new things, so feel free to experiment for yourself.
Flickerwisp, especially in the mono white version, is one of if not the best card in the deck. It's the win condition if the opponent is going after your titans, you have the play of Emeria back a titan bringing back a wisp, targetting the titan to grab back whatever else netting you effectively a free 3/1 flier. It removes tokens, resets planeswalkers that are about to ultimate, resets kitchen finks, and if it matters to your build (I've only seen this once before but) it provides two devotion. Its a threat the opponent doesn't classify as a threat and should never be cut due to its utility.
as for the anafenza combo, I tried it out and can report that anafenza is kind of bad outside of being a combo piece. The bolster seldom matters, and she doesn't have any extra abilities, and is a terrible top deck later game. I would say if you want to include a combo, it's either include anafenza or fiend hunter, and hunter is just the better card between the two.
I'm not a fan of Leonin Arbiter in this deck. Sure, the interaction with Ghost quarter is fine, but I think there are better things to be doing. I'm personally including 2 Fiend Hunter in my list alongside Blasting Station for the infinite combo with sun titan; mostly to have game against UWx Thopter decks as without the combo that matchup is pretty unbeatable if they get the combo going.
Gideon seems like a fine beater or later game protection plan, but I much prefer the 3rd sweeper in that slot because of the sheer number of decks that can't handle a wrath.
Lastly, in regards to the SB, I have found suppression field to be the best card to include against tron, affinity, or most combo decks, which include two of the three things that the deck is truly weak to (scapeshift omitted). It doesn't do anything against storm, but it hits Melira Combo, Ad Nauseam, Kiki, Goryo (griselbrand), and planeswalkers in general - something else that we have problems with. I'm almost thinking of moving up to three in the board just because of how useful it has proven. I Think it's just better than Stony Silence.
I would have to disagree that control is a bad matchup for a mono white version (Not sure if you were saying that it's a bad matchup or that it's just worse than against UW). In my testing, control - specifically the ever popular Nahiri control - is an amazing matchup that i'd probably put at 85-15. I have had zero issues against it. There's a slightly worse time had against UWx thopter decks, but i'd still probably put them at around 70%.
I will agree though that combo decks are abysmal. Scapeshift and Tron are by far the two decks that I hate to see, but every deck needs bad matchups and i'm fine being favored in every tier one matchup sans tron.
So currently i'm running Wayfarer's bauble in my deck as a 2 of to help ramp, obviously, and it has been decent as a turn one play in most games. It's not something that I want to see past turn 6, but if it's in the opener I'm always happy to have it. Just wondering some other thoughts on this. Is ramp worth including whatsoever? Are there better cards at the one slot for two slots in the deck? Other options that i've thought of are Thraben inspector and Sunbeam Spellbomb. The spellbomb was cool when I played it because it's basically wall of omens #5 that helps recoup my life against things like burn while i'm waiting to jam down kitchen finks, but I can't be certain how good it is.
Sorry if i'm interrupting conversation, just wanted to clear something up before posting a decklist or anything.
I'm a long time lurker and decided today to finally make an account and get involved with conversation, so excuse me if this is out of place, but is this the thread to be discussing a Mono White version of this deck?
I finalized my list a couple of days ago, after realizing that the only huge difference between Mono White and Wu was the ability to counter problem threats such as planeswalkers, and the card Detention Sphere. Well, I believe that Declaration in Stone is suitable enough a replacement for the sphere if run alongside O-Rings, and the walkers could be dealt with by other means, so really that only leaves something like scapeshift as a real problem - and I'm fine with having a bad matchup.
So if this isn't the place to talk about mono white, sorry again, but if that's gucci, i'd like to ask if there are any other big differences that blue makes, because I'm not sold on adding blue if I can avoid it.
4x bloodstained mire
3x temple of malice
2x blood crypt
6x swamp
4x mountain
Creatures (15):
4x simian spirit guide
2x borborygmos enraged
4x griselbrand
4x worldspine wurm
1x emrakul the aeons torn
4x nourishing Shoal
4x Goryo's vengeance
4x through the breach
3x blood moon
3x Desperate Ritual
1x Manamorphose
4x faithless looting
2x tormenting voice
1x night's whisper
2x obzendat, ghost council
2x ???
1x slaughter pact
2x rakdos charm
1x shatterstorm
1x ricochet trap
2x anger of the gods
3x lightning axe
1x blood moon
Now obviously the sideboard is really weak. I have two slots that still need filling, but I have no idea what to fill them with. I don't particularly want to pick up leyline or pact of negs, but I can get some number of boseju for the counterspells. Like I said, this will be my first experience outside of FNM, so I'm not sure how good players will handle against the deck, which is why i'm trying to throw them off with the potential for a turn 1/2 blood moon on top of the other busted stuff the deck can do.
I'm wondering how my sideboard could get better, as well as what you guys take out / put in for certain matchups. Do you ever take out like, the shoal package to put a bunch of hate in? do you trim on draw spells like looting?
Thanks!
I really liked it, and have since bought up my own list that is currently undefeated on the day in the tournament practice room, going against Living end x2, mono red hate cards (it was like the free win red deck, but played a bunch of clunkers and weird things like zozu the punisher), Jund, and Eldrazi tron, among another 4-5 bad homebrews.
4 Glint-Nest Crane
4 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Treasure Mage
4 Metalwork Colossus
Ins / Sorc:
2 Fabricate
1 Mechanized Production
1 Whir of Invention
1 Disdainful Stroke
2 Spatial Contortion
Artifacts:
3 Thopter Foundry
4 Mind Stone
2 Talisman of Progress
2 Sword of the Meek
2 Ratchet Bomb
4 Hedron Archive
4 Fieldmist Borderpost
3 Mistvein Borderpost
10 Island
2 Academy Ruins
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Inventors' Fair
1 Turn Aside
3 Negate
2 Padeem, Consul of Innovation
2 Thunderstaff
3 Pithing Needle
4 Relic of Progenitus
So far it's been really sweet. People see the boarderposts and expect to be up against some weird restore balance deck or something, so when you counter their spells they're thrown off guard, the side offers two of the best hate cards in the format in needle and relic which have single-handedly won me a couple of games today, and the colossus being able to sac two thopters to come back for free is just back breaking for the one-for-one decks. With the thopter sword package in, the deck has a lot more reach (literally), and can recover much more nicely than I assume some of the other versions in the thread are able to. The deck is very very weak to artifact hate, but honestly there's not too much of that going around right now except for a renegade stony silence, not many people are packing their shatterstorms like they used to. I feel like this sort of strategy could get somewhere with enough work. I'm still leery of course because i've only tested against a few decks in the format, but it plays very well against everything i've played so far.
I'd have to say that this archetype is so much better when you decide what you want to win against and what you are comfortable taking a loss to if it shows up. I play W<> because it just wrecks every aggro deck in the format. Other versions may be more adept at taking on control or combo decks as in the UW versions. If you want to just stomp on jund all day, maybe GW with like thragtusks and finks would be the correct course.
Just wanted to point out that this deck gets better if you don't look at it as a deck that needs to beat every deck it could possibly go up against. over 1000 random matches. This is, in my experience, a meta call deck and works so much better if you treat it as such. Don't just assume that what works for one person will work for you as well.
I mean that's not really the same deck. I feel like that deck would just be UG and use PHM to get extra benefit off of Glint nest and puzzleknots and just be a combo deck. I'd say throw a list together and try it out, but it wouldn't be this same deck.
Eerie Interlude provides some of the deck's most explosive comebacks, I highly advise against nixing it. It's one of the best cards to draw once a PHM has resolved because like BtL it's just another copy of every awesome creature in your deck.
So the reason that the deck is five color isn't actually bring to light in my opinion. BTL is a good card and being able to find some silver bullets later game is nice, but standing on that strategy alone does not win games. This is a gearhulk deck, not a Birthing pod deck. Before I ran the gearhulks I was all in on BtL even including Whirler Virtuoso Aetherstorm Roc combo, and the deck was just trash. Gearhulks make and break the deck. My version is basically me conceding to that and saying that i'm just going to fully build around them. It's a bant deck that splashes Noxious and Radiant flames, that's really where the five colors come from. I don't even run red main anymore because there just aren't any red cards that are worth running.
With the fact that this is a gearhulk deck in mind, Gearsmith is just an amazing card. It often just wins games against the likes of control and other midrange decks because it effectively counters up to 4 of their removal spells. The deck is entirely artifacts, so let's work that into our strategy with the gearsmith and inventor's fair.
@Anyone in general: Thoughts on Skyship? I included it as a bullet against Planeswalkers but i've found that just pumping up a crane usually answers them anyway. You think it's worth the include? If not, I'd like to try out Gonti or whatever his name is. This is basically my one very flexible slot so I want to see what fits best.
4x Panharmonicon
4x Prophetic prism
4x Glint-Nest Crane
4x Servant of the Conduit
4x Filigree Familiar
Top End:
2x Verdurous Gearhulk
3x Noxious Gearhulk
1x Cataclysmic Gearhulk
1x Skysoverign, Consul Flagship
Utility:
2x Eerie Interlude
2x Reflector Mage
1x Bring to Light
1x Arborback Stomper
1x Restoration Gearsmith
4x Aether Hub
3x Evolving Wilds
2x Forest
1x Swamp
1x Plains
1x Mountain
1x Island
2x Canopy Vista
2x Prairie Stream
2x Blooming Marsh
2x Concealed Courtyard
2x Botanical Sanctum
1x inventors' Fair
1x Cinder glade
4x Authority of the Consuls
2x Negate
2x Ceremonious Rejection
2x Radiant Flames
3x Fragmentize
1x Appetite for the Unnatural
1x Fumigate
So i've adjusted my sideboard to basically strictly cards to bring in against RW that also have play in other matchups. Ok, that's a bit excessive, but the deck seems a lot more tuned to fight the aggro decks because that's all I intend to play against forever at my LGS.
Notes: The Gearsmith is actually the best late game card there is. Recycling gearhulks for use again after a cataclysmic, negating the usefulness of the opponent's Appetites or other artifact destruction... Obviously Eternal witness is a good card, this just has better stats and triggers like 12 times in this deck. It's worth playing.
I'm going down to one bring to light because it's the worst card in the deck. I mean, it's every card, but it's 5 mana which is too steep. I can see why Seth was trying out Eldritch Evolution.
I'm not sold on TKS in the deck without Evolution, there's only like 5 sources that can cast it, it's pretty rough. If you build around it in like a bant colored version (so 4 color), it might have more merit but i'm not a fan right now.
Well the long and short of this deck is basically that we're trying to win the game with the reservoir while also having a bunch of game against a good portion of this highly aggressive modern meta of today. Know what's good against aggressive decks? Soul sisters. Know what's good with the Reservoir? Soul sisters. Let's take a peek at a deck list.
4x Ajani's Pridemate
4x Eldrazi Displacer
1x Inquisitor Exarch
4x Soul Warden
4x Soul's Attendant
4x Suture Priest
2x Wall of Omens
Instant (4)
4x Path to Exile
2x Oblivion Ring
Artifact (9)
3x Aetherflux Reservoir
4x Genesis Chamber
2x Panharmonicon
Land (22)
4x Battlefield Forge
4x Ghost Quarter
13x Plains
1x Westvale Abbey
2x Angel of Invention
1x Blessed Alliance
1x Fumigate
3x Leyline of Sanctity
4x Pithing Needle
2x Rest in Peace
2x Stony Silence
So if the idea here wasn't obvious, we're trying to accumulate a mass of creatures on the board to help trigger the Tumblr package, use Panharmonicon to get #DoubleTriggered, gain a billion life, and blast our aetherflux all over our opponent's face. The deck goes a lot deeper on the old Soul Sister package than the traditional deck, using 4x Genesis chamber to both flood the board with chump blockers and dudes to trigger the ladies.
Basically in this world full of creatures going into combat, you just want to gain life and chump block for decades, then in traditional white weenie style, ya just kind of win eventually.
B-B-B-Breakdown:
12x Soul Sisters, these should be obvious. Suture Priest sometimes also deals a ton of damage in conjunction with Genesis Chamber, though that is not the main plan of action.
Ajani's Pridemate: Backup win condition, average size and shape by turn 5 is a 20/20. With a turn one sister, turn two Chamber, turn three sister and pridemate, dude's already up to a 2 mana 6/6, and just gets bigger and bigger. Easily chump blocked, but hey, The Abyss is a pretty good card.
Eldrazi Displacer: Helps wrack up the triggers in the late game when we're out of cards in hand. Bounce a sister with three others in play, get a myr, gain 7 life all for 3 mana. Also helps enable some of the utility creatures in the deck.
Wall of omens: Strictly to be used in tandem with Displacer in the late game to get more gas.
Inquisitor exarch: Useful for beating decks that want to use Worship or Ensnaring bridge, as well as just gaining more life should the sister plan be lacking.
Path to Exile / Oblivion ring: General removal so that we don't die, a necessary evil for the deck. ORing also helps take out planeswalkers which we can sometimes have issues against.
Aetherflux Reservoir: Essentially Tendrils of Agony, but an artifact and also backwards. We're loaded up with 1 mana spells that we can chain together if we want to go on the win more plan, but very seldom does this card gain more than 1 or 3 life per turn. However, this is the main win condition of the deck because basically no other deck can get up to 50 life to beat it.
Panharmonicon: We're a deck that wants 40 triggers in a turn anyway, may as well make it 80. helps to push us out of reach in the mid to late game.
Genesis chamber: the secret all star of the deck, basically with the 12 sisters we are capable of gaining huge amounts of life from this card every turn. It also doubles the triggers we get from opponent's creatures, which is sweet.
Westvale Abbey: just something I thought would be fun as an alternate win condition. With the number of genesis tokens we have, it'd be surprising if we didn't flip this immediately. Basically just another threat that the opponent has to deal with.
Ghost Quarter: Aside from tapping for colorless mana, this also helps disrupt some of the more prominent strategies in the format such as Titanshift and Tron.
Battlefield Forge: Gotta have dual lands, and this one is one of the cheapest $$$.
The sideboard is just a generic list of good cards in white. Brave the Elements or Rootborn defenses would probably be something to consider because board wipes hurt a lot. A Sun Titan / Emeria package may also be playable for those drawn out games. Hard to tell without playtesting though.
Anyway, this is just me toying around with some of the new kaladesh cards. Let me know if you have any better ideas for what could go in this deck.
As for the rest of the deck, I run 4 finks and 2 missionaries, and they really do work. Finks in UW's missionary slot, and missionary is going halfsies on the court hussar slot with fiend hunter. In mono white, you have a bit of room for experimentation, for example I am running a one of Sunbeam Spellbomb as well as an additional source of lifegain to try and help put me out of range agaisnt decks like burn and storm, as well as a source of sacable card advantage if I can't get a station to stick. You have a lot more room to try out new things, so feel free to experiment for yourself.
Flickerwisp, especially in the mono white version, is one of if not the best card in the deck. It's the win condition if the opponent is going after your titans, you have the play of Emeria back a titan bringing back a wisp, targetting the titan to grab back whatever else netting you effectively a free 3/1 flier. It removes tokens, resets planeswalkers that are about to ultimate, resets kitchen finks, and if it matters to your build (I've only seen this once before but) it provides two devotion. Its a threat the opponent doesn't classify as a threat and should never be cut due to its utility.
as for the anafenza combo, I tried it out and can report that anafenza is kind of bad outside of being a combo piece. The bolster seldom matters, and she doesn't have any extra abilities, and is a terrible top deck later game. I would say if you want to include a combo, it's either include anafenza or fiend hunter, and hunter is just the better card between the two.
I'm not a fan of Leonin Arbiter in this deck. Sure, the interaction with Ghost quarter is fine, but I think there are better things to be doing. I'm personally including 2 Fiend Hunter in my list alongside Blasting Station for the infinite combo with sun titan; mostly to have game against UWx Thopter decks as without the combo that matchup is pretty unbeatable if they get the combo going.
Gideon seems like a fine beater or later game protection plan, but I much prefer the 3rd sweeper in that slot because of the sheer number of decks that can't handle a wrath.
Lastly, in regards to the SB, I have found suppression field to be the best card to include against tron, affinity, or most combo decks, which include two of the three things that the deck is truly weak to (scapeshift omitted). It doesn't do anything against storm, but it hits Melira Combo, Ad Nauseam, Kiki, Goryo (griselbrand), and planeswalkers in general - something else that we have problems with. I'm almost thinking of moving up to three in the board just because of how useful it has proven. I Think it's just better than Stony Silence.
I will agree though that combo decks are abysmal. Scapeshift and Tron are by far the two decks that I hate to see, but every deck needs bad matchups and i'm fine being favored in every tier one matchup sans tron.
So currently i'm running Wayfarer's bauble in my deck as a 2 of to help ramp, obviously, and it has been decent as a turn one play in most games. It's not something that I want to see past turn 6, but if it's in the opener I'm always happy to have it. Just wondering some other thoughts on this. Is ramp worth including whatsoever? Are there better cards at the one slot for two slots in the deck? Other options that i've thought of are Thraben inspector and Sunbeam Spellbomb. The spellbomb was cool when I played it because it's basically wall of omens #5 that helps recoup my life against things like burn while i'm waiting to jam down kitchen finks, but I can't be certain how good it is.
Sorry if i'm interrupting conversation, just wanted to clear something up before posting a decklist or anything.
I'm a long time lurker and decided today to finally make an account and get involved with conversation, so excuse me if this is out of place, but is this the thread to be discussing a Mono White version of this deck?
I finalized my list a couple of days ago, after realizing that the only huge difference between Mono White and Wu was the ability to counter problem threats such as planeswalkers, and the card Detention Sphere. Well, I believe that Declaration in Stone is suitable enough a replacement for the sphere if run alongside O-Rings, and the walkers could be dealt with by other means, so really that only leaves something like scapeshift as a real problem - and I'm fine with having a bad matchup.
So if this isn't the place to talk about mono white, sorry again, but if that's gucci, i'd like to ask if there are any other big differences that blue makes, because I'm not sold on adding blue if I can avoid it.
Thanks!