The new comprehensive rules should be out around May 1, and this is being changed. In this article they go over the additions and changes in this version of the rulebook, and this rule (201.3) is getting changed to only naming one half of the card. So, to use the Toil // Trouble example, if I played Nevermore, I would need to name Toil OR Trouble, rather than Toil and Trouble. You would then be unable to cast the named half or fuse the spell. If I named Trouble, you would only be able to cast Toil.
">Kreri, Blunt Thought :2mana::symr::symr:
Creature - Human Warrior (MR)
Whenever a spell you control would leave the stack without resolving, you may put it on top of your library.
3/3
Oneis, Sharp Thought :3mana::symu::symu:
Creature - Human Wizard (MR)
Whenever a spell is countered, exile the top X cards of target players library, where X is the number of spells cast this turn.
3/4
Anath Lorekeeper 3UR
Creature - Frog Wizard (R)
Whenever a spell is countered, each player may return target sorcery from his or her graveyard to his or her hand. He knows much of this worlds history, and will tell all who ask, and all who have lost something dear. 2/3
Cloak of Illusions XUU
Sorcery (R)
Target creature is unblockable this turn.
Creatures you control get +X/+0 until the beginning of the next end step. Spend only red mana on X.
Spectral Scouting 2
Sorcery (C)
Put a 1/1 white spirit creature token with flying onto the battlefield. Exile Spectral Scouting haunting it.
When the creature Spectral Scouting haunts is put into a graveyard, put a 3/3 black thrull creature token onto the battlefield. A resilient reporter for a fallen scout.
Aniud, Druid of Fetid Vines1GG
Creature - Elf Druid (R) T: Return target land card from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped. Activate this ability only if a land card was put into your graveyard from the battlefield this turn.
2/2
Kreri, Blunt Thought 2RR
Creature - Human Warrior (MR)
Whenever a spell you control would leave the stack without resolving, you may put it on top of your library.
3/3
Oneis, Sharp Thought 3UU
Creature - Human Wizard (MR)
Whenever a spell is countered, exile the top X cards of target players library, where X is the number of spells cast this turn.
3/4
Rotvine Hollow Land (R)
Rotvine Hollow enters the battlefield tapped. T: Add B or G to your mana pool.
Whenever a creature is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on Rotvine Hollow. Then, Rotvine Hollow becomes a 0/0 black and green elemental creature until end of turn. It’s still a land.
Try out Leyline of Sanctity in it. A lot of decks have cards that target you, and while it's out, they can't give the idol back. Seems like a pretty cool deck, would be fun to play.
Pretty much every function you named there was rather poor, with the exception of Sun Titan recursion (which costs 8 mana). I personally feel that you should screw the entire Emeria thingy, drop the Skyfishers, drop the Missionaries, splash another colour and have a better deck.
One thing to keep in mind about this deck, is that you don't miss land drops. I've been goldfishing to see how reliable the mana is, and the first land drops I miss are 7th or 8th if I'm unlucky, I've missed earlier ones once or twice, but every time I was skeptical about the hand. The most mana any of the uses for Skyfisher you said were too expensive is 8 (bounce and replay Sun Titan.) The deck is based on getting up to 8 mana, paying 8 isn't a really big problem. A lot of the time it's realistic on turn 8, sometimes soon thanks to cartographers. This thread isn't about how we can use Sun Titan best. It's a more focused discussion about how to best use him in a specific archtype that already existed, at least as a rouge deck. We're fine with you disagreeing with us, and posting critiques about our ideas, but please make them constructive, rather than saying that we should scrap the deck.
Metamorph: I would like to apologize if I seemed rude about the testing thing. My friends and I like to use proxied cards to see what works and doesn't, and it got into my head as a standard for some reason. And I think people in this thread would be less opposed to your criticism if you had some ideas to help people that want to play the deck. Your points do have some validity, but because your solution is to not run the deck, you will meet nothing but opposition.
Anyways, to anyone that thinks the skyfisher is a subpar choice used only to save Emeria from Seas, allow me to tell you what I've personally used it for, in order of worst to best, in my opinion. There are probably other uses for other builds, as well:
Replaying Missionary for 4 life.
Replaying a Sun Titan to return two cards in one turn.
Replaying Wall of Omens for an extra card.
Replaying a 'walker to get them back to starting loyalty/use two abilities in one turn.
Removing nasty auras (primarily Seas off Emeria, but I've run into other ones.)
Moving around O-Ring.
Replaying a Pilgrim's Eye or Cartographer for more plains, often the seventh one.
It's a card with a lot of versatility, and that's why it's good for the deck.
theripperflex: 4/2 (depending on your personal preference) DoJ keeps you from getting overrun by aggro decks in the early game. It serves some purpose against most decks, so it's better to side out than to side in. Also, for fetches, it's not thinning. It's for when you draw multiple Emerias and not enough plains. Basically, if you have a fetch in your grave, along with 5-6 plains and an Emeria, or six mana available, with 1+ Emerias, and less than seven plains. Sun Titan gets the fetch back, which gives you a plains and, most importantly when compared to Pilgrim's Eye, the fetch in the graveyard for next turn. Not the most needed card, but very good.
therorschach: This deck runs so many cards that get lands out of the deck, 23 or 24 lands actually causes floods. 22 actually leaves me with some times I get stuck sitting around with extra lands in hand. 22 is a great number for the deck.
Kor Skyfisher is not a good answer to Spreading Seas because it just exacerbates the tempo loss issue. you lose a land drop (and then have to replay an EtB tapped land) in order to remove Spreading Seas. in the long run its a solution, but in the short run you have lost an enormous amount of tempo. if Spreading Seas hadn't already time-walked you now it has for sure. pretty weak.
similarly, Sun Titan is not an efficient solution to Goblin Ruinblaster or Tectonic Edge because it is reactive. don't count on an opponent misplaying. and letting you regrow Emeria, the Sky Ruin at your leisure. a smart opponent will hold the land destruction until the turn that you play your 7th plains. then they will destroy Emeria. you can defend against that by having more than one Emeria in play, but consider that each Emeria played is one less Plains played and thus one more turn until it becomes active.
my feeling is that Sun Titan will be better used in other decks. and i also think that while there are workarounds to the issues that Emeria has, none of them are good workarounds because you cannot trade up in tempo or in cards. you might be able to eventually get an active Emeria in play, but its probably just way too late to matter.
You haven't done any sort of testing with this deck, have you? I agree that Edge and Ruinblaster are problems, but they can be played around. However, Spreading Seas really doesn't hurt. The Skyfisher is an amazing solution, because you use the Emeria for the generic, then replay it. Seriously, the worst cases are a turn 2 Seas on Emeria, where a 2/3 flying is pretty nice, and a Seas after getting your seventh plains, where it is some tempo loss, but that doesn't just kill you. Killing my land drop for a turn is bad for me, sure, but in a deck that hits land drops every turn and has some ramp, it's very different than making me lose most of my turn.
Seriously, a version of it got top 4 in national qualifiers, without the solution to Ruinblasters and Edges, despite the problems you say make the deck hard to win with. This is a good deck, it has some problems, but nothing that can't be circumvented by smart playing.
No Gideon? Seems like a natural fit in a deck like this, especially if you start using Perimeter Captains and Wall of Omens.
Gideon is really nice, but I kind of like Ajani a tiny bit better. Getting defenders to 5 toughness is really amazing, you can block Vengevines and BBEs and almost anything on the ground heavily played right now. In all honesty, they're about even for this deck in my opinion.
EDIT: Free 7hinker: I really like your deck for a more midrange version of this deck. As I've said, I really enjoy the more control style build that I've got, but that certainly seems like it works just as well. More of a matter of personal preference than one being better than the other.
Additionally, for the Edge problem at least, Pithing Needle is a really good sideboard card. For anyone that doesn't have a sideboard yet, mine is pretty good, you should check it out for ideas.
Narrow Escape is definitely not a card this deck needs. A lot of our best cards also serve as Emeria savers.
Also, DonRoyale, unless there's a use I don't see in your deck, 6 fetches is way to many. I've been testing, and am really happy with 2. 6 seems like it would just give your opponent some free points off your life.
Top 3:
1. brasil_dude101
2. Rocket Powered Turbo Slug
3. Rudyard
Instant (R)
If it's your turn, counter target spell. If it isn't, counter target ability.
Creature - Human Warrior (MR)
Whenever a spell you control would leave the stack without resolving, you may put it on top of your library.
3/3
Oneis, Sharp Thought :3mana::symu::symu:
Creature - Human Wizard (MR)
Whenever a spell is countered, exile the top X cards of target players library, where X is the number of spells cast this turn.
3/4
Creature - Frog Wizard (R)
Whenever a spell is countered, each player may return target sorcery from his or her graveyard to his or her hand.
He knows much of this worlds history, and will tell all who ask, and all who have lost something dear.
2/3
Sorcery (R)
Target creature is unblockable this turn.
Creatures you control get +X/+0 until the beginning of the next end step. Spend only red mana on X.
Sorcery (C)
Put a 1/1 white spirit creature token with flying onto the battlefield. Exile Spectral Scouting haunting it.
When the creature Spectral Scouting haunts is put into a graveyard, put a 3/3 black thrull creature token onto the battlefield.
A resilient reporter for a fallen scout.
Creature - Elf Druid (R)
T: Return target land card from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped. Activate this ability only if a land card was put into your graveyard from the battlefield this turn.
2/2
Creature - Human Warrior (MR)
Whenever a spell you control would leave the stack without resolving, you may put it on top of your library.
3/3
Oneis, Sharp Thought 3UU
Creature - Human Wizard (MR)
Whenever a spell is countered, exile the top X cards of target players library, where X is the number of spells cast this turn.
3/4
Land (R)
Rotvine Hollow enters the battlefield tapped.
T: Add B or G to your mana pool.
Whenever a creature is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on Rotvine Hollow. Then, Rotvine Hollow becomes a 0/0 black and green elemental creature until end of turn. It’s still a land.
One thing to keep in mind about this deck, is that you don't miss land drops. I've been goldfishing to see how reliable the mana is, and the first land drops I miss are 7th or 8th if I'm unlucky, I've missed earlier ones once or twice, but every time I was skeptical about the hand. The most mana any of the uses for Skyfisher you said were too expensive is 8 (bounce and replay Sun Titan.) The deck is based on getting up to 8 mana, paying 8 isn't a really big problem. A lot of the time it's realistic on turn 8, sometimes soon thanks to cartographers. This thread isn't about how we can use Sun Titan best. It's a more focused discussion about how to best use him in a specific archtype that already existed, at least as a rouge deck. We're fine with you disagreeing with us, and posting critiques about our ideas, but please make them constructive, rather than saying that we should scrap the deck.
Anyways, to anyone that thinks the skyfisher is a subpar choice used only to save Emeria from Seas, allow me to tell you what I've personally used it for, in order of worst to best, in my opinion. There are probably other uses for other builds, as well:
Replaying Missionary for 4 life.
Replaying a Sun Titan to return two cards in one turn.
Replaying Wall of Omens for an extra card.
Replaying a 'walker to get them back to starting loyalty/use two abilities in one turn.
Removing nasty auras (primarily Seas off Emeria, but I've run into other ones.)
Moving around O-Ring.
Replaying a Pilgrim's Eye or Cartographer for more plains, often the seventh one.
It's a card with a lot of versatility, and that's why it's good for the deck.
theripperflex: 4/2 (depending on your personal preference) DoJ keeps you from getting overrun by aggro decks in the early game. It serves some purpose against most decks, so it's better to side out than to side in. Also, for fetches, it's not thinning. It's for when you draw multiple Emerias and not enough plains. Basically, if you have a fetch in your grave, along with 5-6 plains and an Emeria, or six mana available, with 1+ Emerias, and less than seven plains. Sun Titan gets the fetch back, which gives you a plains and, most importantly when compared to Pilgrim's Eye, the fetch in the graveyard for next turn. Not the most needed card, but very good.
therorschach: This deck runs so many cards that get lands out of the deck, 23 or 24 lands actually causes floods. 22 actually leaves me with some times I get stuck sitting around with extra lands in hand. 22 is a great number for the deck.
You haven't done any sort of testing with this deck, have you? I agree that Edge and Ruinblaster are problems, but they can be played around. However, Spreading Seas really doesn't hurt. The Skyfisher is an amazing solution, because you use the Emeria for the generic, then replay it. Seriously, the worst cases are a turn 2 Seas on Emeria, where a 2/3 flying is pretty nice, and a Seas after getting your seventh plains, where it is some tempo loss, but that doesn't just kill you. Killing my land drop for a turn is bad for me, sure, but in a deck that hits land drops every turn and has some ramp, it's very different than making me lose most of my turn.
Seriously, a version of it got top 4 in national qualifiers, without the solution to Ruinblasters and Edges, despite the problems you say make the deck hard to win with. This is a good deck, it has some problems, but nothing that can't be circumvented by smart playing.
Gideon is really nice, but I kind of like Ajani a tiny bit better. Getting defenders to 5 toughness is really amazing, you can block Vengevines and BBEs and almost anything on the ground heavily played right now. In all honesty, they're about even for this deck in my opinion.
EDIT: Free 7hinker: I really like your deck for a more midrange version of this deck. As I've said, I really enjoy the more control style build that I've got, but that certainly seems like it works just as well. More of a matter of personal preference than one being better than the other.
3 Sevout Lightcaster
3 Lumincarch Ascension
3 Kor Firewalker
3 Pithting Needle
3 Kor Sanctifiers
Narrow Escape is definitely not a card this deck needs. A lot of our best cards also serve as Emeria savers.
Also, DonRoyale, unless there's a use I don't see in your deck, 6 fetches is way to many. I've been testing, and am really happy with 2. 6 seems like it would just give your opponent some free points off your life.