Immolating Fire-Eater
Creature - Dragon
Shroud
~ is indestructible.
~ may only enter the battlefield if you control only one Mountain and no other permanents.
Whenever you cast a red non-creature spell, counter it. If it is countered this way, put +1/+1 counters on ~ equal to that spell's converted mana cost.
1/1
Chandra's Companion
Legendary Creature -- Dragon
Flying
: Put a +1/+1 counter on ~.
: Remove a +1/+1 counter from ~. Destroy target land.
: Remove all +1/+1 counters from ~. ~ deals damage to target creature or player equal to twice the number of +1/+1 counters removed.
7/5
Ingenious Plan
Enchantment
As long as ~ is on the battlefield, skip your draw step.
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may draw any number of cards. You lose 1 life for each card drawn. At the beginning of your end step, you gain life equal to the number of cards drawn that turn.
Entwine Souls (U/G)(U/G)(U/G)
Instant
Remove target attacking creature from the game.
If that creature is blue, you may draw cards equal to its power.
If that creature is green...
Now when Merrow Reejerey rotates out with Lorwyn, is this deck going to remain competitive? I guess we'll have to see if we get a decent replacement in the new set...
Has anyone tried using Time Sieve with Colfenor's Urn and Salvage Titan/other (X/4+) artifact creatures? Salvage Titan is now extremely easy to get out early with all the 0-cost artifacts in M10. I haven't tested this, but it seems at least somewhat viable.
I'm going to have to say Divinity of Pride and a few Edge of the Divinity spells is far better than Baneslayer Angel. At the least, Divinity is a 4/4 flier with lifelink. With just one Edge, we can have it at 11/11.
And yes, the argument that including Divinity will increase the average casting cost too much is not valid: just have 2 Ad Nauseum and 2 Divinity of Pride. Either will accomplish what we want.
Has anyone considered splashing red for Ajani Vengeant? Under the most ideal circumstances, we can have 2 Tainted Sigils out by turn 3, Ajani Vengeant on turn 4, and Sanguine Bond on turn 5. Using Ajani's -2 ability, our opponent would lose 6 life. After the Sigils, that 6 becomes 24. This all by turn 5.
I think the point is to win as soon as possible after casting Sanguine Bond. We don't want to have to wait for our opponent's next turn and hope he's stupid enough to attack while we have a Goldenglow Moth out, giving him chances to (1) remove Goldenglow Moth, (2) remove Sanguine Bond, (3) remove even one Tainted Sigil.
Besides, your opponent wouldn't lose 8 from the first sigil, since he only lost 4 from Goldenglow Moth.
Block: you gain 4 -> opponent loses 4
First Sigil: you gain 4 -> opponent loses 4 [cumulative 8]
Second Sigil: you gain 8 -> opponent loses 8 [cumulative 16]
This is also another problem with Ad Nauseum: its high casting cost makes it impossible to cast on the same turn we cast Sanguine Bond; we would have to wait for our next turn. And since we're most likely to tap out casting Sanguine Bond, we won't be able to counter anything our opponent throws at us. (I had also included Lapse of Certainty.) For this reason, maybe we should have something like Wall of Reverence along with Cradle of Vitality (1) to build up early life gain for protection and (2) to allow us to gain enough life at the end of the turn we cast Sanguine Bond to win the game.
Another alternative would be a fatty with Lifelink (with a lower casting cost than Sanguine Bond).
Maybe I'm being overly cautious with waiting a turn or two after casting Sanguine Bond. I don't know.
I don't frequent this forum, and I just came here to get some advice on this very deck idea, but you've beaten me to it.
My original concept included no creatures except Platinum Angel. Instead I had lots of fog/removal spells. You may not even need the Platinum Angel. Think about it:
Suppose you've got 2 Tainted Sigils out along with Sanguine Bond. Cast Ad Nauseum, lose around 10 life only. After 1 Tainted Sigil: gain back all 10 life, opponent loses 10. After the SECOND Tainted Sigil: you now gain 20 (10 of yours + opponent's 10) life, so your opponent loses another 20, for a total of 30 lost life.
With a third Tainted Sigil (with the aid of Diabolic Tutor), we can make our opponent lose 40 life, which adds up to 70 life lost after losing only 10 from Ad Nauseum.
This begs the quesiton: is Ad Nauseum even necessary? Can we achieve what we want with just a few Tainted Sigils?
It's a standard merrow deck, mostly focusing on synergy between the tapping/untapping merrows. A few problems I generally have when playing with this deck:
1. Merrow are pretty weak, and black/red burn and decay spells wipe them out with ease.
2. There's not a strong, surefire win condition. Sure, if I can get Wanderwine Prophets out with Proctective Bubble, I'm set. But this has only happened a few times. Should I increase the number of Prophets I have?
I'd also like to expand this to extended and classic formats. For extended, I throw in Freed from the Real and Paradise Mantle. I also include Veteran of the Depths and Grimoire Thief for some infinite tapping bonuses. Any other suggestions?
Creature - Dragon
Shroud
~ is indestructible.
~ may only enter the battlefield if you control only one Mountain and no other permanents.
Whenever you cast a red non-creature spell, counter it. If it is countered this way, put +1/+1 counters on ~ equal to that spell's converted mana cost.
1/1
Legendary Creature -- Dragon
Flying
: Put a +1/+1 counter on ~.
: Remove a +1/+1 counter from ~. Destroy target land.
: Remove all +1/+1 counters from ~. ~ deals damage to target creature or player equal to twice the number of +1/+1 counters removed.
7/5
"And I thought Chandra had a temper..."
Enchantment
As long as ~ is on the battlefield, skip your draw step.
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may draw any number of cards. You lose 1 life for each card drawn. At the beginning of your end step, you gain life equal to the number of cards drawn that turn.
(U/G)(U/G)(U/G)
Instant
Remove target attacking creature from the game.
If that creature is blue, you may draw cards equal to its power.
If that creature is green...
3 Sanguine Bond
Creatures
3 Divinity of Pride
3 Voracious Hatchling
3 Nip Gwyllion
Other Spells
4 Edge of the Divinity
4 Silence
4 Batwing Brume
4 Path to Exile
4 Doom Blade
4 Terramorphic Expanse
4 Fetid Heath
8 Plains
8 Swamp
4 Solemn Offering
4 Oblivion Ring
4 Unmake
3 Deathmark
Instant
Next: Entwine Souls
And yes, the argument that including Divinity will increase the average casting cost too much is not valid: just have 2 Ad Nauseum and 2 Divinity of Pride. Either will accomplish what we want.
Has anyone considered splashing red for Ajani Vengeant? Under the most ideal circumstances, we can have 2 Tainted Sigils out by turn 3, Ajani Vengeant on turn 4, and Sanguine Bond on turn 5. Using Ajani's -2 ability, our opponent would lose 6 life. After the Sigils, that 6 becomes 24. This all by turn 5.
Besides, your opponent wouldn't lose 8 from the first sigil, since he only lost 4 from Goldenglow Moth.
Block: you gain 4 -> opponent loses 4
First Sigil: you gain 4 -> opponent loses 4 [cumulative 8]
Second Sigil: you gain 8 -> opponent loses 8 [cumulative 16]
This is also another problem with Ad Nauseum: its high casting cost makes it impossible to cast on the same turn we cast Sanguine Bond; we would have to wait for our next turn. And since we're most likely to tap out casting Sanguine Bond, we won't be able to counter anything our opponent throws at us. (I had also included Lapse of Certainty.) For this reason, maybe we should have something like Wall of Reverence along with Cradle of Vitality (1) to build up early life gain for protection and (2) to allow us to gain enough life at the end of the turn we cast Sanguine Bond to win the game.
Another alternative would be a fatty with Lifelink (with a lower casting cost than Sanguine Bond).
Maybe I'm being overly cautious with waiting a turn or two after casting Sanguine Bond. I don't know.
My original concept included no creatures except Platinum Angel. Instead I had lots of fog/removal spells. You may not even need the Platinum Angel. Think about it:
Suppose you've got 2 Tainted Sigils out along with Sanguine Bond. Cast Ad Nauseum, lose around 10 life only. After 1 Tainted Sigil: gain back all 10 life, opponent loses 10. After the SECOND Tainted Sigil: you now gain 20 (10 of yours + opponent's 10) life, so your opponent loses another 20, for a total of 30 lost life.
With a third Tainted Sigil (with the aid of Diabolic Tutor), we can make our opponent lose 40 life, which adds up to 70 life lost after losing only 10 from Ad Nauseum.
This begs the quesiton: is Ad Nauseum even necessary? Can we achieve what we want with just a few Tainted Sigils?
2 Cursecatcher
4 Judge of Currents
2 Merrow Reejerey
2 Sage of Fables
2 Sigil Tracer
4 Stonybrook Banneret
2 Stonybrook Schoolmaster
1 Surgespanner
2 Wake Thrasher
1 Wanderwine Prophets
12 Island
8 Plains
4 Wanderwine Hub
Others
4 Aquitect's Will
4 Cancel
1 Counterbore
1 Protective Bubble
1 Summon the School
3 Unsummon
It's a standard merrow deck, mostly focusing on synergy between the tapping/untapping merrows. A few problems I generally have when playing with this deck:
1. Merrow are pretty weak, and black/red burn and decay spells wipe them out with ease.
2. There's not a strong, surefire win condition. Sure, if I can get Wanderwine Prophets out with Proctective Bubble, I'm set. But this has only happened a few times. Should I increase the number of Prophets I have?
I'd also like to expand this to extended and classic formats. For extended, I throw in Freed from the Real and Paradise Mantle. I also include Veteran of the Depths and Grimoire Thief for some infinite tapping bonuses. Any other suggestions?