I'm still on 4x Manamorphose and I like it for the most part. It more or less works as advertised, even if it's a bit awkward at times (for example, when you're stuck on 1 land). Here are my current issues/concerns with the deck:
1. 12 free cantrips means you have to keep a lot of highly speculative 5s and 6s. I have lost many games due to hands just not panning out after cantripping a few times.
2. The deck is highly subject to variance. I find the perfect number of lands to draw in a game is 3, but it's not uncommon to be stuck on 1 for a while, or to flood out.
3. In line with the above consistency issues, I've found the "wrong half issue" to be the death knell for this deck. It's very easy to draw the wrong type of interaction in a given matchup.
4. I so far believe the deck could benefit from another threat (in addition to 4x Shadow/Goyf). While most would play Grim Flayer for this purpose, I wonder if a singleton Gurmag Angler could be justified.
All that being said, I think a tool like Faithless Looting could be a valuable addition to the deck, at least in theory. Unfortunately, there's just no room for such an effect in Spooly's 4x Manamorphose list, and the card disadvantage is a real problem without being able to effectively utilize the graveyard beyond Delirium. I also suspect that I would want to run 18 lands with Faithless Looting, since I both want to hit my second/third land more consistently, but also want to have something to pitch to Looting later in the game.
That's all I've got. The nut draws this deck produces sure are nutty though.
Edit: my tertiary points of uncertainty are the 2 basics, and my desire to pack a 3rd Stubborn Denial in the main.
I ended up dropping the manamorphose. whilst theoretically a free cantrip I found I ran into lots of issues when to fire it off and make use of it's 'free' factor. Often times you manamorphose for GB and then draw another card you can't cast which feels bad (as then manamorphose just acted like a 2 mana bauble). Also with so many Thalia's around manamorphose feel really bad.
I tested MM with bloodmoons in the board but that also felt like a non-bo at times since it affects your ability to lose life for shadow.
Also found there was a tension between cutting lands for MM (since in theory a cantrip) but also created more mulligans because you have a one land 1-2 manamorphose hands
2) & 3) definitely agree on the variance front, not sure the best way to solve this, this deck definitely needs a way to draw through clunkiness
4) not sure gurmag gets us there given it affects your delirium/goyfs. I was running a Jund version with no splash and found I boarded out flayer most of the time, although I acknowledge my sideboarding may not be optimum. Potentially running snapcaster would be good so you can 'tutor' for a removal/discard spell, albeit in a mana intensive way.
I've been trying to find a way to reduce the reliance on graveyard as RIP or relic essentially creates 8 dead draws in the deck but am abit stumped on this currently.
Also on sideboard what are people thoughts between Grafdiggers vs Nihil spellbomb? I like grafdiggers as it helps more vs hollow one, dredge, company decks but it does disable ancient grudge (which is also good against H1) but find that at times Grafdiggers doesn't cut it against value decks with E-wit or combo like KCI nor does it help with the mirror
I very much prefer nihil spellbomb for the following reasons:
1. Grows the goyf
2. Enables delirium
3. The draw off it can be significant
4. Doesnt turn off our own lingering souls (if youre on white splash)
5. Grafdigger can be removed, where as Nihil can be held in hand until you want to deploy and crack it for just a single mana (given that you surrender the draw)
6. Grafdigger acts more like a floodgate, if it gets removed youre in trouble. Nihil just gets rid of any trouble from the start.
7. For grafdigger to be good you need to draw it early on (preemptively), while nihil is good at any stage of the game.
You make some really good points for spellbomb. I probably overrate the fact that grafdiggers sticks around and feels like a more permanent answer since it is relatively easy to remove and can't be cracked in response
I'm still on 4x Manamorphose and I like it for the most part. It more or less works as advertised, even if it's a bit awkward at times (for example, when you're stuck on 1 land). Here are my current issues/concerns with the deck:
1. 12 free cantrips means you have to keep a lot of highly speculative 5s and 6s. I have lost many games due to hands just not panning out after cantripping a few times.
2. The deck is highly subject to variance. I find the perfect number of lands to draw in a game is 3, but it's not uncommon to be stuck on 1 for a while, or to flood out.
3. In line with the above consistency issues, I've found the "wrong half issue" to be the death knell for this deck. It's very easy to draw the wrong type of interaction in a given matchup.
4. I so far believe the deck could benefit from another threat (in addition to 4x Shadow/Goyf). While most would play Grim Flayer for this purpose, I wonder if a singleton Gurmag Angler could be justified.
All that being said, I think a tool like Faithless Looting could be a valuable addition to the deck, at least in theory. Unfortunately, there's just no room for such an effect in Spooly's 4x Manamorphose list, and the card disadvantage is a real problem without being able to effectively utilize the graveyard beyond Delirium. I also suspect that I would want to run 18 lands with Faithless Looting, since I both want to hit my second/third land more consistently, but also want to have something to pitch to Looting later in the game.
That's all I've got. The nut draws this deck produces sure are nutty though.
Edit: my tertiary points of uncertainty are the 2 basics, and my desire to pack a 3rd Stubborn Denial in the main.
I ended up dropping the manamorphose. whilst theoretically a free cantrip I found I ran into lots of issues when to fire it off and make use of it's 'free' factor. Often times you manamorphose for GB and then draw another card you can't cast which feels bad (as then manamorphose just acted like a 2 mana bauble). Also with so many Thalia's around manamorphose feel really bad.
I tested MM with bloodmoons in the board but that also felt like a non-bo at times since it affects your ability to lose life for shadow.
Also found there was a tension between cutting lands for MM (since in theory a cantrip) but also created more mulligans because you have a one land 1-2 manamorphose hands
2) & 3) definitely agree on the variance front, not sure the best way to solve this, this deck definitely needs a way to draw through clunkiness
4) not sure gurmag gets us there given it affects your delirium/goyfs. I was running a Jund version with no splash and found I boarded out flayer most of the time, although I acknowledge my sideboarding may not be optimum. Potentially running snapcaster would be good so you can 'tutor' for a removal/discard spell, albeit in a mana intensive way.
I've been trying to find a way to reduce the reliance on graveyard as RIP or relic essentially creates 8 dead draws in the deck but am abit stumped on this currently.
Also on sideboard what are people thoughts between Grafdiggers vs Nihil spellbomb? I like grafdiggers as it helps more vs hollow one, dredge, company decks but it does disable ancient grudge (which is also good against H1) but find that at times Grafdiggers doesn't cut it against value decks with E-wit or combo like KCI nor does it help with the mirror
You make some really good points for spellbomb. I probably overrate the fact that grafdiggers sticks around and feels like a more permanent answer since it is relatively easy to remove and can't be cracked in response
I ended up dropping the manamorphose. whilst theoretically a free cantrip I found I ran into lots of issues when to fire it off and make use of it's 'free' factor. Often times you manamorphose for GB and then draw another card you can't cast which feels bad (as then manamorphose just acted like a 2 mana bauble). Also with so many Thalia's around manamorphose feel really bad.
I tested MM with bloodmoons in the board but that also felt like a non-bo at times since it affects your ability to lose life for shadow.
Also found there was a tension between cutting lands for MM (since in theory a cantrip) but also created more mulligans because you have a one land 1-2 manamorphose hands
2) & 3) definitely agree on the variance front, not sure the best way to solve this, this deck definitely needs a way to draw through clunkiness
4) not sure gurmag gets us there given it affects your delirium/goyfs. I was running a Jund version with no splash and found I boarded out flayer most of the time, although I acknowledge my sideboarding may not be optimum. Potentially running snapcaster would be good so you can 'tutor' for a removal/discard spell, albeit in a mana intensive way.
I've been trying to find a way to reduce the reliance on graveyard as RIP or relic essentially creates 8 dead draws in the deck but am abit stumped on this currently.
Also on sideboard what are people thoughts between Grafdiggers vs Nihil spellbomb? I like grafdiggers as it helps more vs hollow one, dredge, company decks but it does disable ancient grudge (which is also good against H1) but find that at times Grafdiggers doesn't cut it against value decks with E-wit or combo like KCI nor does it help with the mirror