My big problem with chalice has been that without the usual good matchups for it being common I often feel like it just doesn't accomplish that much. Against discard decks especially I find that vs discard heavy hands it usually just gets taken first, and otherwise my opponent are just playing cards that don't get hit by chalice on 1 and by turn 3/4 I would rather be doing other things besides dropping chalice on 2. My meta seems to favor traditional BGx, eldrazi, and other random grindy decks like fae and tokens, with a smattering of control and combo. As metas go it's a pretty favorable one, I just can't seem to shake the feeling that I'm playing too many cards that aren't impactful enough against the decks I see often. I really like the idea of playing spell pierce, and might throw an extra gemstone back in my board.
I've been really resistant to playing leylines because I don't like the idea of having a card in my deck that's unstable after t1. I know there's been other discussion of it on here before. If I am playing against a ton of discard is it worth it?
My playstyle tends to be to play like a draw go control deck first, then tron. Should I be trying to force early tron more against the kinds of decks I'm seeing? I'm also a fan of keeping land heavy hands, which I could see being a source of my discard woes.
I also briefly flirted with Opt, but was underwhelmed.
Thank you so much for your help!
That sounds like a meta ripe for U-Tron to be honest as most of what you listed are good MUs. For a little boost against tokens tho I think you'd do well replacing fabricate with trinket mage and jamming an engineered explosives in there. Also, chalice is pretty strong against BGx decks and stopping discard. If they pick off chalice turn 0 with IoK/thoughtsieze that's fine because we have recursion and we're likely to just bury them in card advantage from what they didn't take instead.
It definitely is a very nice meta for the deck - I just feel like I should be able to optimize my deck for it a bit better. You may have a point about chalice, though. I'll try to reevaluate how effective it is and how I value it next time I play. EE also could be a good idea - it would help against the occasional random aggro decks that pop up as well. Is it worth playing without adding River of Tears/extra talismans to make sunburst 2 more likely?
My big problem with chalice has been that without the usual good matchups for it being common I often feel like it just doesn't accomplish that much. Against discard decks especially I find that vs discard heavy hands it usually just gets taken first, and otherwise my opponent are just playing cards that don't get hit by chalice on 1 and by turn 3/4 I would rather be doing other things besides dropping chalice on 2. My meta seems to favor traditional BGx, eldrazi, and other random grindy decks like fae and tokens, with a smattering of control and combo. As metas go it's a pretty favorable one, I just can't seem to shake the feeling that I'm playing too many cards that aren't impactful enough against the decks I see often. I really like the idea of playing spell pierce, and might throw an extra gemstone back in my board.
I've been really resistant to playing leylines because I don't like the idea of having a card in my deck that's unstable after t1. I know there's been other discussion of it on here before. If I am playing against a ton of discard is it worth it?
My playstyle tends to be to play like a draw go control deck first, then tron. Should I be trying to force early tron more against the kinds of decks I'm seeing? I'm also a fan of keeping land heavy hands, which I could see being a source of my discard woes.
Hey folks, first time posting but I've been on the deck for 3 years and loved every minute of it. I usually play fairly standard lists (more towards pie style than shok) but I've been feeling like I need to do something different lately. My meta tends to be very fair and somewhat slow, which sounds good for us, but I've been having some problems with facing turn 1 thoughtseize 4 out of 4 matches a night. I've also been really underwhelmed by some of the normal staples like angel and chalice in my meta. Does anyone have advice for cards/configurations that would be good to get an edge on a fair, discard heavy meta, or do I really just need to reexamine my playstyle?
It definitely is a very nice meta for the deck - I just feel like I should be able to optimize my deck for it a bit better. You may have a point about chalice, though. I'll try to reevaluate how effective it is and how I value it next time I play. EE also could be a good idea - it would help against the occasional random aggro decks that pop up as well. Is it worth playing without adding River of Tears/extra talismans to make sunburst 2 more likely?
I've been really resistant to playing leylines because I don't like the idea of having a card in my deck that's unstable after t1. I know there's been other discussion of it on here before. If I am playing against a ton of discard is it worth it?
My playstyle tends to be to play like a draw go control deck first, then tron. Should I be trying to force early tron more against the kinds of decks I'm seeing? I'm also a fan of keeping land heavy hands, which I could see being a source of my discard woes.
My current list is:
1 Academy Ruins
1 Gemstone Caverns
1 Ghost Quarter
9 Island
4 Urza's Mine
4 Urza's Power Plant
4 Urza's Mine
Creatures
1 Platinum Angel
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Torrential Gearhulk
1 Treasure Mage
1 Walking Ballista
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Ugin the Spirit Dragon
Spells
4 Condescend
1 Cyclonic Rift
4 Remand
3 Repeal
1 Supreme Will
4 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Fabricate
Artifacts
2 Chalice of the Void
4 Expedition Map
2 Mindslaver
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Talisman of Dominance
2 Chalice of the Void
3 Dismember
1 Dispel
2 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Negate
2 Spatial Contortion
3 Spreading Seas
1 Wurmcoil Engine
I also briefly flirted with Opt, but was underwhelmed.
Thank you so much for your help!