On Chromium, the Mutable, I dropped this card. I liked the idea of it, but boy did it feel bad tapping mana for it on the rare chance I was stable on 7. My games with Lyra Dawnbringer were much more stable.
I don't understand the problem with "tapping" for Chromium, The Mutable, he haves flash so that is not a problem. I would argue that a 7 CMC is the real issue in this kinda fast meta.
I don't know if the mana is good enough to support Settle the Wreckage turn 4 consistently so that could be a problem.
Have been playing the current list updated by OP in MTG Arena and it's a very good deck. Niv-Mizzet, Parun has been insane as a finisher.
I think i'm playing this over my Esper Control list, UR Control is a lot more consistent and has a much better matchup against aggro/token decks and the sideboard plan against control works perfectly.
We could try Risk Factor instead of Inescapable Blaze but maybe it's not a good idea because the latter is also removal.
The current format is faster than i thought and token decks have been pretty hard to beat so Ritual of Soot is needed in the main deck with the other 2 copies in the sideboard. Maybe Golden Demise orPlague Mare could be better options.
Lyra Dawnbringer comes in against aggro/burn decks. Burn in this standard format is much better, especially because of Risk Factor, so the lifegain Lyra Dawnbringer bring is very much needed.
I don't have enough tokens in MTG Arena for Vona's Hunger so i've been playing with Moment of Craving instead and it has been ok. I also don't have all the lands so the testing has not been as good as it could have been.
Double black and double blue on turn three seems pretty tough for our mana so i would not play many copies of Murder.
Esper Control will probably be MUCH better with RNA, where we would have a much better mana base with Hallowed Fountain and probably a better removal pack than we have now.
I wouldn't splash for black over white simply because in no univere is the Eldest Reborn better than Teferi, and you aren'tg gaining any way to deal with resolved non-creature permanents by splashing for black. Going Jeskai gives you Settle the Wreckage which is going to probablybe needed main board what with new formats tending to always lean hyper aggro for the first few weeks.
That being said the mana base isn't going to be as hospitable for Jeskai and the WW needed to play wreckage/boros cards. I'll brew something up in the next few days and post a decklist once I have access to play magic again.
The thing with Jeskai Control is that the mana is pretty tight, you would need to sacrifice double blue for double white, but it's doable because Ionize exists.
My mistake... Soorani was off on Radical Idea, not Chemister's Insight. I managed to get the link to work, and here's his first list. Interestingly, his mana base is only 15U/15B/8W.
I also re-read Frank Karsten's colored mana source article last night. In it, he says to "count any cheap scry [read as Surveil] cards as 0.2 sources." So, with a total of four, possibly five Surveil cards with CMC 2 in Soorani's list (Searches, Discovery, and Price of Fame if it targets a legendary), that throws one extra colored source out for a T3 UU, rounding up. However, this doesn't count for the fact that Discovery is Surveil 2 and draw one, so that's a bonus there. So, we could probably survive on 17-18 blue sources. This number obviously changes if we mainboard Thought Erasure. It's almost tempting to add it in just to further improve the mana base...
Moving up to Surveil cards costing 3 or less, we are now at ten, again not counting the Surveil 2 AND draw 2 on Notion Rain. If you count each of those separate, then you are up to the equivalent of 3-4 sources. This drops our need for BB on T4 from 18 to at least 16.
With an additional 3 CMC 4 surveil cards, this time counting Price of Fame here, then we are at 12 surveil cards that could help by T5, not counting repeated ones from a resolved Search, or a Notion Rain. That would drop the needed W sources by just over 2, so let's round that down. That means a T5 Teferi can survive on 8 white sources.
Based on my (probably incorrect) maths, I'm thinking that we should be aiming for 17-18U/16B/8W as our minimums for a mana base. I also think that 27 land isn't a bad place to start, with the ability to Surveil away, and pitch late game to Insight, it's probably better to err on the heavy side than try to force out numbers with 26 land.
It seems we ended on somewhat similar lists. The main difference would be Notion Rain instead of Thought Erasure. Only playing the new format will tell us what are the best cards i guess.
If you are playing only UR control instead of splashing for Grixis/Jeskai, I think you are definitely gonna want to go really low to avoid letting any hexproof creatures drop- Nullhide Ferox or Vine Mare will end games against this deck. Detection Tower could be a good answer too although I am not sure it is as good as Field of Ruin is for us...
I think you will want 4-of Field of Ruin to hate out 3 color or more decks.
Firemind's Research seems like a good 2-of for incremental value and win-condition.
Where are the singleton copies of Banefire + Mission Briefing though? I will brew something in a little while and post... EDIT- brewed- its just a sketch for now:
If the manabase is well built Field of Ruin won't do much against 3 coloured decks in terms of screwing their mana. We play Field of Ruin mainly to answer Search for Azcanta so a full playset seems overkill IMO. He plays Detection Tower over Field of Ruin in the UR version because it's the only realiable way of killing hexproof creatures if they manage to get to the battlefield. I think OP values more having a way of answering such threats than having Field of Ruin for Search for Azcanta. He could also add one copy of Memorial to War instead of a mountain so he haves an answer for that, wich may actually screw your opponents mana in some games (that sounds like fun).
I think Mission Briefing is overrated or a "trap" but i might be wrong. Firemind's Research also seems underwhelming in my eyes, if you don't play it in the early turns it's a very bad draw later in the game.
Your iteration of the deck is more of a counter-burn deck, instead OP's deck is a full control deck with burn as a secondary win-con wich transforms to a counter-burn against other control decks with the sideboard.
I guess OP plays Inescapable Blaze over Banefire because of the instant speed against control wich makes sense. Keep up the counter spells and burn them at the end of their turn, seems like a winning strategy to me.
I do agree with posters here that some number of Thought Erasure in the main could be correct - after all, Thoughtseize was. However, just because one was, doesn't mean the other is.
In other articles I've seen, basically the choice comes down to do you want to run WW for Settle the Wreckage or BB for Vraska's Contempt. General consensus is that Contempt is probably better, for now. A mana base as below will give 18U / 16B / 8W plus two Field of Ruin, which isn't a bad start. Yes, it's a little slow for T3 UU, T4 BB (would need 19U and 18B), so potentially one could switch out a couple of the Islands for Dimir Guildgates if things are slow enough in your meta. I'm tempted by one Arch of Orazca or Memorial to Genius as more card draw, but we'll see.
I think not having Doom Whisperer in the deck is a big mistake, or a Lyra Dawnbringer.
Double white costed cards are very hard to cast with the manabase we have so i'd rather not even try to play them. I don't think that Doom Whisperer is needed, Chromium, The Mutable is good enough as a finisher.
In respect of the manabase presented by Greentea83, i like the idea of adding Evolving Wilds so we can have at least one Plains so we don't get screwed by Field of Ruin in some games.
I've been toying with this deck and have to agree that Thought Erasure is the real deal, I would considering cutting some of the narrow counter spells or Hungers for a playset. I'd also consider some Anticipate to give you something to do when you can't counter on t2. Otherwise, this looks really good. Chromium is an excellent finisher.
Maybe something like this: (did some other changes too)
Ral, Izzet Viceroy will at least draw one card or kill a creature when he enters the battlefield so even if they kill him you still gain an advantadge wich in the long run will give you the win. If you want to tap out to play him it will depend on the matchup obviously.
I like the deck a lot because i like Niv-Mizzet, Parun.
Going Jeskai might be too clunky mana wise (a lot of double white costed cards). Splashing black might be a better move because it gives you easy access to cards like Vona's Hunger, Plaguecrafter and The Eldest Reborn wich answer Carnage Tyrant.
You would have 18 blue sources, 16 red sources and 8 black sources wich works perfectly fine with the cards you pretend to play. You would have to cut Field of Ruin and Detection Tower from the 75 entirely wich can be a problem if you want an answer to cards like Search for Azcanta.
Esper Control for the next GRN standard format. The deck is really an UB Control with white splash for Teferi, Hero of Dominaria and Chromium, The Mutable. The mana is pretty tight so we dont have space for lands such as Field of Ruin, but maybe we could cut one Island.
The black removal is not as good as it was with Fatal Push. We are forced to play Vona's Hunger because of all the hexproof creatures available in standard. If those creatures are not so prevalent we can switch to Moment of Craving and/or Murder depending on the meta or we can play more conservative with The Eldest Reborn in the sideboard as the hexproof answer. The blue spells is the usual package of counter spells and draw spells with the nice new addition of Disdainful Stroke and Chemister's Insight (wich has been very good in testing).
As win conditions we use Teferi, Hero of Dominaria with Chromium, The Mutable as the finisher.
The sideboard is pretty simple, the usual discard spell with Thought Erasure and extra counter spells with Ritual of Soot as the answer to all go wide strategies such as a GW Tokens deck.
Thief of Sanity comes in against midrange/control decks that sideboard out their removal.
The deck weakness will probably be fast aggro/burn decks because of the underwhelming black removal we have. Moment of Craving and Blood Operative might end up necessary to fight against those decks. In the end it will all depend on the meta of the GRN standard.
I don't understand the problem with "tapping" for Chromium, The Mutable, he haves flash so that is not a problem. I would argue that a 7 CMC is the real issue in this kinda fast meta.
I don't know if the mana is good enough to support Settle the Wreckage turn 4 consistently so that could be a problem.
Literally unplayable
Have been playing the current list updated by OP in MTG Arena and it's a very good deck. Niv-Mizzet, Parun has been insane as a finisher.
I think i'm playing this over my Esper Control list, UR Control is a lot more consistent and has a much better matchup against aggro/token decks and the sideboard plan against control works perfectly.
We could try Risk Factor instead of Inescapable Blaze but maybe it's not a good idea because the latter is also removal.
The current format is faster than i thought and token decks have been pretty hard to beat so Ritual of Soot is needed in the main deck with the other 2 copies in the sideboard. Maybe Golden Demise orPlague Mare could be better options.
Lyra Dawnbringer comes in against aggro/burn decks. Burn in this standard format is much better, especially because of Risk Factor, so the lifegain Lyra Dawnbringer bring is very much needed.
Three copies of The Eldest Reborn come in against hexproof creatures such as Carnage Tyrant and Nullhide Ferox and it's also good against some midrange decks.
I don't have enough tokens in MTG Arena for Vona's Hunger so i've been playing with Moment of Craving instead and it has been ok. I also don't have all the lands so the testing has not been as good as it could have been.
Double black and double blue on turn three seems pretty tough for our mana so i would not play many copies of Murder.
Esper Control will probably be MUCH better with RNA, where we would have a much better mana base with Hallowed Fountain and probably a better removal pack than we have now.
3x Cast Down
3x Moment of Craving
4x Vraska's Contempt
2x Ritual of Soot
Blue Spells (16)
4x Essence Scatter
2x Syncopate
4x Sinister Sabotage
2x Search for Azcanta
4x Chemister's Insight
4x Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
Creatures(2)
2x Chromium, The Mutable
Lands (26)
4x Drowned Catacomb
4x Watery Grave
4x Glacial Fortress
4x Isolated Chapel
4x Island
3x Swamp
1x Plains
2x Evolving Wilds
4x Negate
4x Thought Erasure
2x Ritual of Soot
3x The Eldest Reborn
2x Lyra Dawnbringer
The thing with Jeskai Control is that the mana is pretty tight, you would need to sacrifice double blue for double white, but it's doable because Ionize exists.
The mana would be something like:
4x Steam Vents
4x Sacred Foundry
4x Clifftop Retreat
4x Glacial Fortress
4x Plains
3x Island
1x Mountain
2x Evolving Wilds
We would have 13 blue sources, 18 white sources and 15 red sources (good enough if we don't have double blue).
If we wanted to force double blue and double white the mana base would be something like:
4x Steam Vents
2x Sulfur Falls
4x Sacred Foundry
2x Clifftop Retreat
4x Glacial Fortress
3x Island
2x Plains
1x Mountain
4x Evolving Wilds
We have 16 blue sources, 16 white sources and 17 red sources.
It would be much easier if we had Hallowed Fountain:
4x Hallowed Fountain
4x Glacial Fortress
4x Steam Vents
2x Sacred Foundry
4x Clifftop Retreat
4x Island
1x Plains
1x Mountain
2x Evolving Wilds
We have 18 blue sources, 17 white sources and 13 red sources (much better).
I also think the card is pretty good but you don't want to play it in a control deck IMO.
It seems we ended on somewhat similar lists. The main difference would be Notion Rain instead of Thought Erasure. Only playing the new format will tell us what are the best cards i guess.
If the manabase is well built Field of Ruin won't do much against 3 coloured decks in terms of screwing their mana. We play Field of Ruin mainly to answer Search for Azcanta so a full playset seems overkill IMO. He plays Detection Tower over Field of Ruin in the UR version because it's the only realiable way of killing hexproof creatures if they manage to get to the battlefield. I think OP values more having a way of answering such threats than having Field of Ruin for Search for Azcanta. He could also add one copy of Memorial to War instead of a mountain so he haves an answer for that, wich may actually screw your opponents mana in some games (that sounds like fun).
I think Mission Briefing is overrated or a "trap" but i might be wrong.
Firemind's Research also seems underwhelming in my eyes, if you don't play it in the early turns it's a very bad draw later in the game.
Your iteration of the deck is more of a counter-burn deck, instead OP's deck is a full control deck with burn as a secondary win-con wich transforms to a counter-burn against other control decks with the sideboard.
I guess OP plays Inescapable Blaze over Banefire because of the instant speed against control wich makes sense. Keep up the counter spells and burn them at the end of their turn, seems like a winning strategy to me.
I think that Chemister's Insight is better than Notion Rain in this deck, getting tapped out early game might lose us the game and the life lose is pretty relevant. I also think that we don't need Opt or Anticipate thanks to the surveil on Thought Erasure and Sinister Sabotage.
Etrata, the Silencer is not a finisher we would want to play.
Double white costed cards are very hard to cast with the manabase we have so i'd rather not even try to play them. I don't think that Doom Whisperer is needed, Chromium, The Mutable is good enough as a finisher.
In respect of the manabase presented by Greentea83, i like the idea of adding Evolving Wilds so we can have at least one Plains so we don't get screwed by Field of Ruin in some games.
4x Drowned Catacomb
4x Watery Grave
4x Glacial Fortress
4x Isolated Chapel
4x Island
3x Swamp
1x Plains
2x Evolving Wilds
We end up with 18 blue sources, 17 black sources and 11 white sources (a bit better than the previous mana).
Maybe something like this: (did some other changes too)
3x Cast Down
2x Moment of Craving
1x Price of Fame
4x Vraska's Contempt
Blue Spells (15)
3x Essence Scatter
2x Disdainful Stroke
4x Sinister Sabotage
2x Search for Azcanta
4x Chemister's Insight
4x Thought Erasure
Blue-White Spells (4)
4x Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
Esper Spells(1)
1x Chromium, The Mutable
Lands (26)
4x Drowned Catacomb
4x Watery Grave
4x Glacial Fortress
4x Isolated Chapel
6x Island
4x Swamp
2x Disdainful Stroke
3x Negate
2x Moment of Craving
2x Vona's Hunger
2x Ritual of Soot
3x Thief of Sanity
1x Chromium, The Mutable
4x Ghitu Lavarunner
4x Viashino Pyromancer
4x Shock
4x Lightning Strike
4x Wizard's Lightning
4x Risk Factor
4x Sovereign's Bite
4x Sword-Point Diplomacy
Red-Black Spells (4)
4x Angrath, The Flame-Chained
Lands (24)
4x Dragonskull Summit
4x Cinder Barrens
11x Mountain
5x Swamp
4x Duress
4x Fiery Cannonade
3x The Eldest Reborn
4x Banefire
Going Jeskai might be too clunky mana wise (a lot of double white costed cards). Splashing black might be a better move because it gives you easy access to cards like Vona's Hunger, Plaguecrafter and The Eldest Reborn wich answer Carnage Tyrant.
The mana could look something like this:
4x Steam Vents
4x Sulfur Falls
4x Watery Grave
4x Dragonskull Summit
6x Island
4x Mountain
You would have 18 blue sources, 16 red sources and 8 black sources wich works perfectly fine with the cards you pretend to play. You would have to cut Field of Ruin and Detection Tower from the 75 entirely wich can be a problem if you want an answer to cards like Search for Azcanta.
I would suggest adding one The Eldest Reborn to the main deck over one Ral, Izzet Viceroy and with the 2 open spaces in the sideboard left from Detection Tower you can add more copies of The Eldest Reborn or Vona's Hunger.
3x Cast Down
3x Vona's Hunger
4x Vraska's Contempt
Blue Spells (18)
4x Essence Scatter
2x Disdainful Stroke
2x Syncopate
4x Sinister Sabotage
2x Search for Azcanta
4x Chemister's Insight
4x Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
Esper Spells(2)
2x Chromium, The Mutable
Lands (26)
4x Drowned Catacomb
4x Watery Grave
4x Glacial Fortress
4x Isolated Chapel
6x Island
4x Swamp
2x Disdainful Stroke
3x Negate
3x Thought Erasure
3x Ritual of Soot
1x The Eldest Reborn
3x Thief of Sanity
Esper Control for the next GRN standard format. The deck is really an UB Control with white splash for Teferi, Hero of Dominaria and Chromium, The Mutable. The mana is pretty tight so we dont have space for lands such as Field of Ruin, but maybe we could cut one Island.
The black removal is not as good as it was with Fatal Push. We are forced to play Vona's Hunger because of all the hexproof creatures available in standard. If those creatures are not so prevalent we can switch to Moment of Craving and/or Murder depending on the meta or we can play more conservative with The Eldest Reborn in the sideboard as the hexproof answer. The blue spells is the usual package of counter spells and draw spells with the nice new addition of Disdainful Stroke and Chemister's Insight (wich has been very good in testing).
As win conditions we use Teferi, Hero of Dominaria with Chromium, The Mutable as the finisher.
The sideboard is pretty simple, the usual discard spell with Thought Erasure and extra counter spells with Ritual of Soot as the answer to all go wide strategies such as a GW Tokens deck.
Thief of Sanity comes in against midrange/control decks that sideboard out their removal.
The deck weakness will probably be fast aggro/burn decks because of the underwhelming black removal we have.
Moment of Craving and Blood Operative might end up necessary to fight against those decks. In the end it will all depend on the meta of the GRN standard.