Exploring the cascadeless versions with Electrodominance seemed pleasant to me as well.
First I don't really like the greater gargadon win condition. It has often seemed unreliable.
Also with the new Electrodominance tech you are allowed to be faster and more explosive. For instance, Turn-1 borderpost into turn 2 SpiritGuide + Electrodominance + Restore balance on their draw step is almost unbeatable.
This is the list I came up with after a few iterations.
This is a spell-based version of the "Balance As Foretold" archetype
Arclight Phoenix provides a real clock
The game plan is almost always to cast a turn 2-4 Restore Balance
I tried to add Spoil of the Vaults to improve consistency and fight disruption. Proved to be very effective, despite a 15% chance of free-loss. You only cast this in 'emergency case', often to find Restore Balance, and when you find it, you'll win the game roughly 80% of the time
after casting Restore Balance, the opponent should have about 1 land and 1 card in hand. Play patiently, wait for 2 useless cards before playing a 'draw 2, discard 2' effect.
My thought on this version:
This version is powerful. In a decent percentage of games you just lock your opponent before he can play anything substancial
Card-filtering helps with consistency
Game plan is probably a bit too ambitious: the "balance" between basic lands, borderposts and spells is hard to find
Still bad matchup against humans and BGx, okay matchup versus control and spirits, good vs big mana and creature-based decks including Izzet Phoenix (I believe)
So the problem I have with this verison is few things.
Spoils of the Vault seem really bad. We already lose a lot of life due to this deck and this version being passive. That and we have to exile all the cards so we could just lose the game there if we have a poorly stacked deck.
Not a big fan of pheonix. I feel we have to burn through our deck if we want to revive him, and even then, Restore balance could just send him away again.
Chandra, not particual about this version, I feel she's too slow, and with her +1 exiling spells we could want, as well as she may be just a 4 mana deal 4 is pretty meh, I feel you could cut the Restore balances out and the deck would still play out the same way it does already, control and dig and she'd be just the finisher.
You also run only 2 basic lands, which means if you want to run posts you have to fetch for them first thing otherwise they're useless. Running 3 non-basic lands means at most your opponent keeps 3 lands which doesn't slow down Humans, Boggles, Burn, Affinity, and even Green Scales. Since they either run super cheap stuff or produce their own mana via Opals, Mana Dorks ( which is where the Phenoixs can be harmful more than benficial), and so on. Burn still beats both versions with Eidolon of the Great Revel.
Not a fan of relying on just As Foretold since it's super slow and people see it coming from far away, I know most of your spells are between 1-2 mana,but you can play it T2 (T1 Island, T2 SSGx2) at earliest, then have to wait 2 more turns to cast stuff for free. That's 4 turns just for free spells once per turn, or T2 if you have RB in hand, and even then you're devoting so much resources to this card which can be easliy stopped.
Lastly, I think you should drop the posts. Or lean more into them. This odd split of mana to post ratio carries the deck into odd directions. You have the slow ticking Foretolds so Posts aren't need, yet you run so few actual mana you need posts. You run such an odd amount of posts that their overal consistency is weird.
That's not to say your deck can't operate, but at face vaule that's what I see. And this is coming from a man who strongly believes that the cascade version is the best and is resistent to change (I'll die on this hill)
Thanks for the detailed opinion, I think you're right about these points except that you compare this version to the classic Restore balance that is indeed slow. This version is faster, as you'll mulligan more aggressively and almost always cast Restore balance on t2/t3. Cast Spoil the Vault as soon as you have to, and die 18% of the time, fine Though 82% of the time, you'll manage to "balance" the game a bit.
I checked the lastest ElectroDominance versions and the Cascade versions, I'm not convinced. How can you possibly defeat Spirits and Humans with their t2 / t3 disruption? Seems these decks can't deal with a single Thalia / Musoleum Wanderer / Meddling Mage...
Exploring the cascadeless versions with Electrodominance seemed pleasant to me as well.
First I don't really like the greater gargadon win condition. It has often seemed unreliable.
Also with the new Electrodominance tech you are allowed to be faster and more explosive. For instance, Turn-1 borderpost into turn 2 SpiritGuide + Electrodominance + Restore balance on their draw step is almost unbeatable.
This is the list I came up with after a few iterations.
This is a spell-based version of the "Balance As Foretold" archetype
Arclight Phoenix provides a real clock
The game plan is almost always to cast a turn 2-4 Restore Balance
I tried to add Spoil of the Vaults to improve consistency and fight disruption. Proved to be very effective, despite a 15% chance of free-loss. You only cast this in 'emergency case', often to find Restore Balance, and when you find it, you'll win the game roughly 80% of the time
after casting Restore Balance, the opponent should have about 1 land and 1 card in hand. Play patiently, wait for 2 useless cards before playing a 'draw 2, discard 2' effect.
My thought on this version:
This version is powerful. In a decent percentage of games you just lock your opponent before he can play anything substancial
Card-filtering helps with consistency
Game plan is probably a bit too ambitious: the "balance" between basic lands, borderposts and spells is hard to find
Still bad matchup against humans and BGx, okay matchup versus control and spirits, good vs big mana and creature-based decks including Izzet Phoenix (I believe)
Any reason why no one seems to Play "Anafenza, the Foremost"? This Card Looks preety good against all the GY strategys. An at worst, it might be a nice semi comeback Card when no synergie is available. A 4/4 is not that bad
It's not that bad, but I think it is just another 3-drop and we must not overload the curve on 3-drops.
Reflector Mage is one of the only soft counters to creatures, so cutting them creates a hole in the deck.
Bugler is a good 2-for-1, excellent against removals. Anafenza, the Foremost will deal about as much damage as Mantis Rider if unchecked, but if it takes a removal, it will just deal nothing whereas Mantis Rider can usually sneak 3 damage, and this is very valuable. Flying ability is valuable as well.
Anafenza has a decent GY hate ability, but since Hollow One and Vengevine decks are vey active on turns 1-2 it may be sometimes too late. But it's not irrelevant either so I'm not sure if it's playable, perhapas in a particular meta it is.
I don't know. Still seems to me that dead/gone is only good against meddling mage. Sure, its great answer to that, but shriekmwaw handles it well enough too. And its good against many more decks (scavenging ooze anyone?). But maybe I've been really lucky against humans (so far I only lost once).
With Living End you should usually cycle turn 1, cycle twice turn 2, and probably Living end on t3. So there are 2 types of creatures: creatures that enter the battlefield early and may have an important impact in the game, and powerful creatures that come after t3. That's a reason why Dead/Gone seems well-suited to Living End: the early creatures can be killed with Dead on your turn 1 or 2 (Goblin Guide/Swiftspear/other aggressive creatures like Flameblade Adept, early Noble Hierarch in CoCo/ramp decks, Arbor Elf in Ponza, Thalia, Meddling Mage, Dark Confidant, Young Pyromancer to buy time, affinity creatures with Cranial Plating, maybe Goblin Electromancer,...) and for the late ones you still have interesting play, usually to gain time before you draw a cascade spell (bounce Bedlam Reveler once he has entered the battlefield, delay Primeval Titan's kill after Through the Breach, bounce Gurmag Angler/Vengevine/Hollow One,...)
With Shriekmaw, you use 2 mana to get an additional 3/2 after LE. But do you think it surpasses the many advantages you have when playing at instant-speed?
But more important questions is, what is your method of shuffling guys? Because in last 6 months I got so many losses just because my deck is killing me. On MKM series, I got 5:4, and 3 losses (2 against monogreen, easiest matchup ever) were just that despite seeing 20+ cards in a game, I never hit any cascade. Or in a recent example, went to an FNM. In 3 rounds and 8 games, I had living end in every opening hand except one (and that includes few mullingans). And last game, between turn 1 and 3 I drew all 3 living ends!!! I really wanted to throw the deck in a garbage right there Smile Am I only biased and its "natural" rate of bad luck or do you think this in any way may be influenced by better shuffling methods? Because I love the deck, can take losing to aggro or hate, but this, at this rate is really killig me
Randomness is part of Magic. 1 LE in opening hand is fine, drawing 3 LE once in a while may happen to anyone. The deck is a consistent combo deck, but it's not THAT consistent to begin with Your job is still to make the most of any situation to increase your chances of winning the game. If you think that going off 1 turn sooner is better than cycling 3 additional cards and have a 5-6% chance to draw your 3rd LE, then go for it
If you're just having a rough patch, take a break from the game.
I also see there is discussion about additional 1-drops. I’m obviously by no means a pro player, but it really doesn’t feel like the deck needs it. Even with Bugler it feels like it needs more draw....
Yep, I agree after all. 4 Vials 4 Hierarchs 4 Parish is enough. It's just that I feel like Reflector mage is super great against aggro decks but maybe not good enough against Affinity, so I was wondering if the t2 bugler into a t3 high-impact sideboard card was the way to go.
We have to be careful not to overload the mana curve with 3-drops, right?
Even if you flood out, Warden of the First Tree won't do much since it's basically a 1/1 that can be a 3/3 for 3 mana in total.
Similarly, Kytheon, Hero of Akros is a 1-drop that could help against decks you are trying to race, but it's probably not good enough.
I agree that with Bugler, 2-drops are a bit better. Dark Confidant is the best card for this slot, even if I wonder if we really need that kind of effect now that we have Bugler (it's much more the midrange plan than the aggro plan). 1 Mayor of Avabruck is great to have a 5th 'lord' and it improves your board presence immediately, but it trades 1-for-1 with a removal.
I'm still condering the 5th mana dork to make the deck faster esp. after sideboard.
Playing Shriekmaw is now only a bad influence from the previous LE decks.
It's just not good enough and some players are still thnking they make a good deal when they remove Thalia with it as it doesn't "cost 1 more". But eh, Dead is still best because instant-speed matters. Dead//Gone is also way more versatile than Shriekmaw.
Shriekmaw was best when the meta was full of Eldrazis, midrange and aggro decks.
Living End is probably not at its best now, since it's generally good against midrange/aggro decks, and the most played aggro deck (Humans) is very disruptive.
Since Living End is still mediocre against combo decks, now you just can't afford not to interact before turn 3.
Beast Within has improved, Fulminator Mage has moved to SB. (although when Jeskai and Tron are played a lot, it could make sense to play 2 + 2SB Mages, but otherwise I think that a 1 + 3SB split is fair)
That being said, I think there are different possibilities now. SCG Open Indianopolis's decks are fine, focusing on a reliable t3 (or t2) LE.
I still believe that a t2 LE doesn't win the game, and you must play enough interaction to ensure that you can cast your Living End. Even if you cast it slightly later overall, this strategy can still make you win more often.
For this reason I would go for
3 Demonic Dread. The 4th Demonic Dread removes a valuable interaction slot and I don't think it's that good. I prefer to cas Dead + 1cycler in one turn instead of Shriek. Gives me roughly the same probability to draw one of my cascade spells!
3 Spirit Guides + 19 lands (more consistent land drops)
In the current meta where Humans is the most played deck, 2 Dead/Gone greatly improves the matchup and this remains a versatile card. Note that it's great against Spirits as well
Definitely not 4 Archfiend. When you cast 1 Living End, you are probably attacking for lethal on the next turn. Cycling for 2 mana puts you one step behind in a lot of games, remember than Modern is faster than before.
I believe that the 20th cycler is not worth the 5th (or 6th, or whatever) interactive slot in your deck
That's my current list at the moment, if the most played decks are Humans, Jeskai Control, Tron, Hollow One.
Against a lot of Storm/KCI/Dredge, I think I'd add Ravenous Trap to the SB over Leyline of the Void (as a "5th Faerie Macabre"), since you draw a lot during the game.
The selection piece is a big deal, but it must be pointed out that oftentimes we want a Bugler target early, and Bugler does not get targets early--in the timeframe that this deck is operating on, that is. If you're digging for Rec Sage or Kataki on T3 against Affinity, it's already too late
But what if you play a manadork on t1? playing a t2 bugler into a t3 Kataki/Rec Sage should be entirely different.
How about adding a 5th manadork (Avacyn's Pilgrim)? I feel like it significantly increases the odds of playing a t2 bugler into a t3 Kataki/Rec Sage, and the good thing is that the decks against which digging for an answer is good are often decks that have few removals for the t1 dork (Affinity, KCI, Tron, other combo decks...)
@SmauG Thx for the details, so Necromancer is worse than before indeed.
I have done some testing with Militia Bugler too. As you guys all said, it seems to be a great balanced card (tested against Hollow One, Control, and the mirror). The list certainly deserves 2 or 3 copies in the maindeck. With 4 you risk having a slow, clunky hand with 2-3 of them, which is a bit more annoying than Reflector Mages or Mantis Riders (because Bugler doesn't have any good immediate impact on the board).
I'm still wondering what is best:
1) add the Bugler in the flex slots and keep the rest of the deck intact, as it has proved to be well-balanced and complete
2) or try to redesign the deck a bit, knowing that the meta keeps shifting and that Bugler can now more easily find 2-power creatures in the deck.
Some of you mentioned some 1-drops, perhaps 1 Avacyn's Pilgrim can help to cast the 3-drops; perhaps it's nice to be more aggressive with Kytheon, hero of Akros
Perhaps some humans are now less relevant than before (Meddling Mage, Reflector Mage...)?
What do you guys think about Xathrid Necromancer to resist decks with lots of removals? I can see it appears sometimes in SB and even in maindeck to free some SB slots, but is it really good? Competition is severe among 3-drops, and a lot of decks that run removals also run Path to Exile (UW Control, UWx control, Abzan, even Burn post-sb), which trades with the Necromancer (3 mana for 1).
Still very useful against sweepers and decks like Mardu Pyromancer I guess.
So do you think it fits in the current meta?
In the current meta that is full of Field of Ruins, Path to Exile and Blood Moons, 3 basic lands is the way to go. Diversifying basic land types are useful to prevent color deaths, while Swamps and Forests are best against Moon. But remember that if your opponent destroys your only red source, you can't play a single cascade spell.
In my opinion, if you run 4 spirit guides, you could go for 2 swamps, 1 forest and 4 Verdant Catacombs.
If you run 3 guides, you may have the opportunity to play more fetchlands and it is very viable to play 1 Swamp, 1 forest, 1 mountain, and 5-6 fetchlands (e.g. 4 Catacombs and 1 Bloodstained Mire).
I would not say they are slower than us. A decent start for us is to Violent Outburst on t3 to attack on turn 4 with lethal damage. Demonic Dread may not be castable as they play few creatures before going off, and they don't lose life from their lands so it's not easy to achieve this t4 win.
On the other hand, they can quite reliably win on turn 4, and sometimes on turn 3. This probably means that whoever starts has a huge edge, right? Against such combo decks, perhaps Fulminator is quite good on the play. And it's probably too slow on he draw (still worth playing it), unless we have a lot of disruption on top of it (against KCI: graveyard hate, maybe Ingot chewer, etc.)
Also you guys have probably noticed the recent performances of Ironworks Combo. How good do you think Faerie Macabre is against this deck? I've found they can play around graveyard hate quite well. If they manage to put enough artifacts in play they can even respond to the Faerie's ability and eventually return the targeted artifacts anyway. This probably still slows them down, though.
Also, if Ingot Chewer is probably too weak against them, Krosan Grip on Krark-Clan Ironworks has to be strong. The deck is consistent enough to be able to put another copy of KCI into play, but again, slowing them down a bit can be just enough for a deck like Living End to win the game. Any thoughts?
Let me explain.
To evaluate cyclers I use the following criteria in this order
1- Can cycle for 1 mana
2- Is good at goldfishing (because that's how you win, most of the time when your opponent plays during his turn and taps out, the EOT Violent Outburst followed by an attack will win the game)
3- Has good additional abilities (e.g. Archfiend's ability is insane)
4- Is resilient to "light" removals -> Note that Living End already runs creatures that die easily (Shriekmaw, Faerie Macabre). You win games because a single spell wraths the board and puts 5 creatures into play, not because the Fatal Push your opponents keeps in hand is useless at that time. LE is a super strong spell, and that's what matters
5- Can be cast. Note that a 7-mana creature will rarely be cast before turn 10, whereas a 4-mana creature could actually be cast much earlier and make your clock better.
It might be true that Deadshot Minotaur killing Faerie is not that problematic, but I'm still not a big fan... I may underestimate Architects' ETB effect though, that may be why I've been playing with Rotbeast for the versatility and to avoid playing a 3-power creature. So I'll give Architects a try.
Also PV's article explains why 2-mana cyclers are far worse than 1-mana cyclers. The format is way too quick for them and a couple of Archfiends may be the only exception.
Thanks for the detailed opinion, I think you're right about these points except that you compare this version to the classic Restore balance that is indeed slow. This version is faster, as you'll mulligan more aggressively and almost always cast Restore balance on t2/t3. Cast Spoil the Vault as soon as you have to, and die 18% of the time, fine
I checked the lastest ElectroDominance versions and the Cascade versions, I'm not convinced. How can you possibly defeat Spirits and Humans with their t2 / t3 disruption? Seems these decks can't deal with a single Thalia / Musoleum Wanderer / Meddling Mage...
First I don't really like the greater gargadon win condition. It has often seemed unreliable.
Also with the new Electrodominance tech you are allowed to be faster and more explosive. For instance, Turn-1 borderpost into turn 2 SpiritGuide + Electrodominance + Restore balance on their draw step is almost unbeatable.
Land (12)
1 Blood Crypt
2 Bloodstained Mire
1 Flooded Strand
1 Island
2 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Steam Vents
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Electrodominance
3 Izzet Charm
1 Noxious Revival
4 Spoils of the Vault
4 Ancestral Vision
4 Faithless Looting
4 Restore Balance
4 Serum Visions
1 Firewild Borderpost
2 Mistvein Borderpost
4 Veinfire Borderpost
1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
This is the list I came up with after a few iterations.
- This is a spell-based version of the "Balance As Foretold" archetype
- Arclight Phoenix provides a real clock
- The game plan is almost always to cast a turn 2-4 Restore Balance
- I tried to add Spoil of the Vaults to improve consistency and fight disruption. Proved to be very effective, despite a 15% chance of free-loss. You only cast this in 'emergency case', often to find Restore Balance, and when you find it, you'll win the game roughly 80% of the time
- after casting Restore Balance, the opponent should have about 1 land and 1 card in hand. Play patiently, wait for 2 useless cards before playing a 'draw 2, discard 2' effect.
My thought on this version:Reflector Mage is one of the only soft counters to creatures, so cutting them creates a hole in the deck.
Bugler is a good 2-for-1, excellent against removals.
Anafenza, the Foremost will deal about as much damage as Mantis Rider if unchecked, but if it takes a removal, it will just deal nothing whereas Mantis Rider can usually sneak 3 damage, and this is very valuable. Flying ability is valuable as well.
Anafenza has a decent GY hate ability, but since Hollow One and Vengevine decks are vey active on turns 1-2 it may be sometimes too late. But it's not irrelevant either so I'm not sure if it's playable, perhapas in a particular meta it is.
With Living End you should usually cycle turn 1, cycle twice turn 2, and probably Living end on t3. So there are 2 types of creatures: creatures that enter the battlefield early and may have an important impact in the game, and powerful creatures that come after t3. That's a reason why Dead/Gone seems well-suited to Living End: the early creatures can be killed with Dead on your turn 1 or 2 (Goblin Guide/Swiftspear/other aggressive creatures like Flameblade Adept, early Noble Hierarch in CoCo/ramp decks, Arbor Elf in Ponza, Thalia, Meddling Mage, Dark Confidant, Young Pyromancer to buy time, affinity creatures with Cranial Plating, maybe Goblin Electromancer,...) and for the late ones you still have interesting play, usually to gain time before you draw a cascade spell (bounce Bedlam Reveler once he has entered the battlefield, delay Primeval Titan's kill after Through the Breach, bounce Gurmag Angler/Vengevine/Hollow One,...)
With Shriekmaw, you use 2 mana to get an additional 3/2 after LE. But do you think it surpasses the many advantages you have when playing at instant-speed?
Randomness is part of Magic. 1 LE in opening hand is fine, drawing 3 LE once in a while may happen to anyone. The deck is a consistent combo deck, but it's not THAT consistent to begin with
If you're just having a rough patch, take a break from the game.
Yep, I agree after all. 4 Vials 4 Hierarchs 4 Parish is enough. It's just that I feel like Reflector mage is super great against aggro decks but maybe not good enough against Affinity, so I was wondering if the t2 bugler into a t3 high-impact sideboard card was the way to go.
We have to be careful not to overload the mana curve with 3-drops, right?
Similarly, Kytheon, Hero of Akros is a 1-drop that could help against decks you are trying to race, but it's probably not good enough.
I agree that with Bugler, 2-drops are a bit better. Dark Confidant is the best card for this slot, even if I wonder if we really need that kind of effect now that we have Bugler (it's much more the midrange plan than the aggro plan). 1 Mayor of Avabruck is great to have a 5th 'lord' and it improves your board presence immediately, but it trades 1-for-1 with a removal.
I'm still condering the 5th mana dork to make the deck faster esp. after sideboard.
It's just not good enough and some players are still thnking they make a good deal when they remove Thalia with it as it doesn't "cost 1 more". But eh, Dead is still best because instant-speed matters. Dead//Gone is also way more versatile than Shriekmaw.
Shriekmaw was best when the meta was full of Eldrazis, midrange and aggro decks.
Living End is probably not at its best now, since it's generally good against midrange/aggro decks, and the most played aggro deck (Humans) is very disruptive.
Since Living End is still mediocre against combo decks, now you just can't afford not to interact before turn 3.
Beast Within has improved, Fulminator Mage has moved to SB. (although when Jeskai and Tron are played a lot, it could make sense to play 2 + 2SB Mages, but otherwise I think that a 1 + 3SB split is fair)
That being said, I think there are different possibilities now. SCG Open Indianopolis's decks are fine, focusing on a reliable t3 (or t2) LE.
I still believe that a t2 LE doesn't win the game, and you must play enough interaction to ensure that you can cast your Living End. Even if you cast it slightly later overall, this strategy can still make you win more often.
For this reason I would go for
That's my current list at the moment, if the most played decks are Humans, Jeskai Control, Tron, Hollow One.
2 Archfiend of Ifnir
4 Desert Cerodon
3 Faerie Macabre
1 Fulminator Mage
4 Horror of the Broken Lands
1 Architects of Will
4 Monstrous Carabid
3 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Street Wraith
Spells (15)
2 Dead // Gone
3 Demonic Dread
3 Living End
3 Beast Within
4 Violent Outburst
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
1 Blood Crypt
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Blooming Marsh
1 Forest
2 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Mountain
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
1 Swamp
3 Verdant Catacombs
1 Wooded Foothills
2 Anger of the Gods
3 Ingot Chewer
3 Ricochet Trap
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Dead // Gone
3 Fulminator Mage
Against a lot of Storm/KCI/Dredge, I think I'd add Ravenous Trap to the SB over Leyline of the Void (as a "5th Faerie Macabre"), since you draw a lot during the game.
But what if you play a manadork on t1? playing a t2 bugler into a t3 Kataki/Rec Sage should be entirely different.
How about adding a 5th manadork (Avacyn's Pilgrim)? I feel like it significantly increases the odds of playing a t2 bugler into a t3 Kataki/Rec Sage, and the good thing is that the decks against which digging for an answer is good are often decks that have few removals for the t1 dork (Affinity, KCI, Tron, other combo decks...)
I have done some testing with Militia Bugler too. As you guys all said, it seems to be a great balanced card (tested against Hollow One, Control, and the mirror). The list certainly deserves 2 or 3 copies in the maindeck. With 4 you risk having a slow, clunky hand with 2-3 of them, which is a bit more annoying than Reflector Mages or Mantis Riders (because Bugler doesn't have any good immediate impact on the board).
I'm still wondering what is best:
1) add the Bugler in the flex slots and keep the rest of the deck intact, as it has proved to be well-balanced and complete
2) or try to redesign the deck a bit, knowing that the meta keeps shifting and that Bugler can now more easily find 2-power creatures in the deck.
Still very useful against sweepers and decks like Mardu Pyromancer I guess.
So do you think it fits in the current meta?
In my opinion, if you run 4 spirit guides, you could go for 2 swamps, 1 forest and 4 Verdant Catacombs.
If you run 3 guides, you may have the opportunity to play more fetchlands and it is very viable to play 1 Swamp, 1 forest, 1 mountain, and 5-6 fetchlands (e.g. 4 Catacombs and 1 Bloodstained Mire).
On the other hand, they can quite reliably win on turn 4, and sometimes on turn 3. This probably means that whoever starts has a huge edge, right? Against such combo decks, perhaps Fulminator is quite good on the play. And it's probably too slow on he draw (still worth playing it), unless we have a lot of disruption on top of it (against KCI: graveyard hate, maybe Ingot chewer, etc.)
Also you guys have probably noticed the recent performances of Ironworks Combo. How good do you think Faerie Macabre is against this deck? I've found they can play around graveyard hate quite well. If they manage to put enough artifacts in play they can even respond to the Faerie's ability and eventually return the targeted artifacts anyway. This probably still slows them down, though.
Also, if Ingot Chewer is probably too weak against them, Krosan Grip on Krark-Clan Ironworks has to be strong. The deck is consistent enough to be able to put another copy of KCI into play, but again, slowing them down a bit can be just enough for a deck like Living End to win the game. Any thoughts?
To evaluate cyclers I use the following criteria in this order
1- Can cycle for 1 mana
2- Is good at goldfishing (because that's how you win, most of the time when your opponent plays during his turn and taps out, the EOT Violent Outburst followed by an attack will win the game)
3- Has good additional abilities (e.g. Archfiend's ability is insane)
4- Is resilient to "light" removals -> Note that Living End already runs creatures that die easily (Shriekmaw, Faerie Macabre). You win games because a single spell wraths the board and puts 5 creatures into play, not because the Fatal Push your opponents keeps in hand is useless at that time. LE is a super strong spell, and that's what matters
5- Can be cast. Note that a 7-mana creature will rarely be cast before turn 10, whereas a 4-mana creature could actually be cast much earlier and make your clock better.
It might be true that Deadshot Minotaur killing Faerie is not that problematic, but I'm still not a big fan... I may underestimate Architects' ETB effect though, that may be why I've been playing with Rotbeast for the versatility and to avoid playing a 3-power creature. So I'll give Architects a try.
Also PV's article explains why 2-mana cyclers are far worse than 1-mana cyclers. The format is way too quick for them and a couple of Archfiends may be the only exception.