You can also go the aggro-control route: playing an early threat and then keep attacking with it and protecting it. Examples: U/G Madness (Wild Mongrel and Circular Logic) or any Delver of Secrets deck.
Personally I'm going to be going down to 1x Spellskite as our match up against Boggles, Twin, and Infect are all perfectly fine. I much prefer Engineered Explosives in that slot. I think that the deck needs at least 1x Engineered Explosives to deal with Lingering Souls and/or Boggles. It also helps against the Affinity match up and problematic permanents.
EE would be a good option indeed. Should test definitely test it. My (limited) experience against the Bogles deck was that it was not a favorable match-up. Not being able to burn away their critters was painful, the only way to win was to race the deck.
4x Magma Jet is just way too much. The 2CMC slot is too heavy, the usual cut here is the Magma Jet for a combination of Electrolyze and Burst Lightning.
Don't forget that Sword of Light and Shadow is perfect against Lingering Souls as well. Once it's equipped, your creature is immune to Lingering Souls tokens, Path to Exile, and Dismember.
If I would play the deck again, I'd cut 1 Magma Jet and 1 SoLaS for 2 Electrolyze. You're right that Sword is good against those cards, but at the same time my experience is that I constantly wanted to do multiple (useful) things instead of using up my mana for an equipment I couldn't use until next turn. (You seldomly have 5 mana in play.) By the time your critter is equiped, you may have been beaten to death by flying tokens..
I think your build is fine but against Goyf decks you really want a redundant number of way to get rid of Deathrite Shaman turn 1. 3x Vendilion Clique is interesting, and it might be the right way to go but I'm not sure. I don't like Faerie Conclave to go with Delver of Secrets as it creates more awkward hands with Sulfur Falls, Faerie Conclave, and Mutavaults.
I LOVED the Cliques and think that 3 is the right number to play. You may be right about the Conclave, it didn't do a lot during my games. As for the redundant number of ways to get rid of DRS: You think 4 Lightning Bolt and 2 Pillar of Flame won't do the trick? I've thought about Burst Lightning, of course, but I think the ratio burn-counter is already fine.
I played a U/R Delver deck at GP Antwerp. I've been meaning to post something about it here, since I had scoured this thread for play tips and deck advice and I felt like contributing. My list is practically equal to Hoogland's:
I played all of the 9 rounds. In the first 7 rounds I lost to a Birthing Pod deck and a R/B/W good stuff deck and was at 5-2. I subsequently lost to a Bogles deck (Hexproof, aaargh) and was out of contention for day 2, then won against G/W Hatebears and went 6-3. All in all, I was pretty content with my performance. I had literally no practice with the deck, but it played smoothely and awesome - practically no mana issues. There was a large variety of decks I played: all 9 of them were different decks (the other decks I played and won against were Tron, Infect, Soul Sisters, Living End, Robots). There wasn't a Tarmogoyf to be seen, so.. lucky me!
In a lot of the match-ups I ended up siding in more burn, it's good to have more burn in the sideboard if I want to get rid of my slow counters and their fast creatures. I was not impressed by Sword of Light and Shadowat all, I would rather have had 2 Electrolyze in the main (against Lingering Souls, par example). But, as I said earlier, I didn't get to play the more grindy matches against the B/G/x Tarmogoyf-Liliana decks..
I played a deck with Voidmage Prodigy in it in a small tournament and did quite allright with it. I played him with Spellstutter Sprite, Dark Confidant and Snapcaster Mage. And of course Aether Vial! I didn't play Mutavault, but should have. And for the rest: SoLaS, cheap counters (Spell Snare etc.) and removal (Smother etc.). Voidmage Prodigy is great for locking down the game againt slower decks. The deck had a hard time againt dedicated aggro, though..
I hate to come off as annoying or a know it all, and i don't want to try to push your deck in a direction that you don't want it. But you current deck is really not that colour intensive, by my count you only have 7 cards in main that require UU and only 4 cards that can only be paid with blue. It is my honest opinion that you could easily splash another colour just by adding 4 shocklands and 4-5 basics, this gives you 8/9 outs to draw into your extra colour, won't slow you down, and you will be almost guarantied to hit your 1UU by turn 3.
But again, if mono U is the concept you want to run i can respect that, and it may very well be fully as viable.
^ I came here to say exactly what hchoeiberg said. Allow me to ellaborate a little more.
Mono U currently has very few good fliers. You are forced then to play things like Metropolis Sprite (a terrible terrible card) and Nimbus Naiad (a Wind Drakewith a negligible effect). By splashing W you can replace those two with Lyev Skynightwhich is a powerful creature in itself and Ascended Lawmage.
You can also replace Disperse with the more versatile Azorius Charm.
Even if you decide to go mono U, Spell Rupture is pretty bad. Syncopate or even Stymied Hopes would honestly be better in that spot.
Just for fun I would include 1 of Thassa herself. With Bident and her you only need 2 more creatures to get the 5/5 indestructible beast, plus Scrying every turn is soooo good in decks like these. Just my 2 cents
You guys may be right on this. The color requirements aren't that heavy. Playing worse cards than I would with a second color probably isn't worth playing mono. Also, a copy of Thassa could indeed be cool..
Why no Nightveil Specter?
Furthermore there is a card called Supreme Verdict, which really is a blow to your deck.
Why not splash black for some duress in the sideboard (if you want to invest more money, Thoughseize instead)
His deck runs 8 MD counters AND Judge's familiar with a curve that tops out at turn 3/4. HOW exactly is this deck weak to Supreme Verdict???
The problem is that Supreme Verdict cannot be countered. The way to combat this would be to be able to reload/gain card advantage and fill up the board quickly after such a swipe, which is possible because of the low cmc of my creatures. Cards that would make this possible are the Bident of Thassa or Nightveil Specter and Duskmantle Seer, were I to go black.
Thank you all for the suggestions so far. I will be posting a possible list later. I must confess I haven't tested anything yet, so this is all pure speculation. I hope to get in some testing soon.
Well if you do happen to splash white, maybe it would be worth it to give Ascended Lawmage a go. 3/2 flying hexproof seems good, and with the ordeals and cantrip enchantments i think this could be the deck for it. (I may be wrong though, it has been known to happen)
Well, originally I was also thinking about including Ordeal of Thassa, but I hate being 2-for-1'ed. Getting your enchanted creature burned doesn't mean your aura gets sacrificed, right?
But going two colors in the new standard means having to settle for non-basic lands that enter the battlefield tapped, something I don't want with this deck..
Sorry to suggest out of color, but i feel medomai as his extra turn shennans is worth splashing for, especially with warden of evos isle
Thanks for the reply! Medomai's ability is certainly gravy, but the cmc may just be too steep, even with Warden of Evos Isle. I think the deck benefits most from quick, efficient beaters, especially in combination with Bident of Thassa.
A U/G version, as I suggested, could benefit from Simic Charm, as all modes of this card are good in this deck. But I don't want to play guildgates (too slow!). Hmm..
I'm not a regular Standard player, but I wanted to scrape together a deck for the coming Game Day that is at the same time cool to play, cheap to build and at least a little bit competitive. The deck is built to work like the old Blue Skies deck (link). Efficient evasion beats with counter back-up.
I'm not a regular Standard player, but I wanted to scrape together a deck for the coming Game Day that is at the same time cool to play, cheap to build and at least a little bit competitive. The deck is built to work like the old Blue Skies deck (link). Efficient evasion beats with counter back-up.
Playing regular Commander with more than 4 players usually takes waaay too long. People want to play spells and attack, not wait for 15 minutes until it's their turn again.. I'd prefer playing in 2 pods of 3 players.
EE would be a good option indeed. Should test definitely test it. My (limited) experience against the Bogles deck was that it was not a favorable match-up. Not being able to burn away their critters was painful, the only way to win was to race the deck.
If I would play the deck again, I'd cut 1 Magma Jet and 1 SoLaS for 2 Electrolyze. You're right that Sword is good against those cards, but at the same time my experience is that I constantly wanted to do multiple (useful) things instead of using up my mana for an equipment I couldn't use until next turn. (You seldomly have 5 mana in play.) By the time your critter is equiped, you may have been beaten to death by flying tokens..
I LOVED the Cliques and think that 3 is the right number to play. You may be right about the Conclave, it didn't do a lot during my games. As for the redundant number of ways to get rid of DRS: You think 4 Lightning Bolt and 2 Pillar of Flame won't do the trick? I've thought about Burst Lightning, of course, but I think the ratio burn-counter is already fine.
4 Island
1 Mountain
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Mutavault
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Steam Vents
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Faerie Conclave
Creatures:
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Spellstutter Sprite
3 Vendilion Clique
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Magma Jet
4 Mana Leak
4 Remand
2 Spell Pierce
2 Spell Snare
2 Pillar of Flame
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
2 Blood Moon
1 Dispel
3 Magma Spray
1 Negate
1 Spell Snare
2 Turn // Burn
2 Spellskite
2 Dismember
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
I played all of the 9 rounds. In the first 7 rounds I lost to a Birthing Pod deck and a R/B/W good stuff deck and was at 5-2. I subsequently lost to a Bogles deck (Hexproof, aaargh) and was out of contention for day 2, then won against G/W Hatebears and went 6-3. All in all, I was pretty content with my performance. I had literally no practice with the deck, but it played smoothely and awesome - practically no mana issues. There was a large variety of decks I played: all 9 of them were different decks (the other decks I played and won against were Tron, Infect, Soul Sisters, Living End, Robots). There wasn't a Tarmogoyf to be seen, so.. lucky me!
In a lot of the match-ups I ended up siding in more burn, it's good to have more burn in the sideboard if I want to get rid of my slow counters and their fast creatures. I was not impressed by Sword of Light and Shadowat all, I would rather have had 2 Electrolyze in the main (against Lingering Souls, par example). But, as I said earlier, I didn't get to play the more grindy matches against the B/G/x Tarmogoyf-Liliana decks..
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I'm encountering exactly the same problem. What's going on?
You guys may be right on this. The color requirements aren't that heavy. Playing worse cards than I would with a second color probably isn't worth playing mono. Also, a copy of Thassa could indeed be cool..
The problem is that Supreme Verdict cannot be countered.
Thank you all for the suggestions so far. I will be posting a possible list later. I must confess I haven't tested anything yet, so this is all pure speculation. I hope to get in some testing soon.
Well, originally I was also thinking about including Ordeal of Thassa, but I hate being 2-for-1'ed. Getting your enchanted creature burned doesn't mean your aura gets sacrificed, right?
White could be interesting. Not necessarily because of Ascended Lawmage, but Lyev Skyknight. Such tempo!
But going two colors in the new standard means having to settle for non-basic lands that enter the battlefield tapped, something I don't want with this deck..
Thanks for the reply! Medomai's ability is certainly gravy, but the cmc may just be too steep, even with Warden of Evos Isle. I think the deck benefits most from quick, efficient beaters, especially in combination with Bident of Thassa.
A U/G version, as I suggested, could benefit from Simic Charm, as all modes of this card are good in this deck. But I don't want to play guildgates (too slow!). Hmm..
Thanks, I interpreted it wrong.
4 Judge's Familiar
4 Vaporkin
4 Metropolis Sprite
4 Warden of Evos Isle
4 Nimbus Naiad
4 Dissolve
3 Disperse
3 Bident of Thassa
22 island
4 hands of binding
4 negate
3 mizzium skin
3 air servant
1 Disperse
I'm not a regular Standard player, but I wanted to scrape together a deck for the coming Game Day that is at the same time cool to play, cheap to build and at least a little bit competitive. The deck is built to work like the old Blue Skies deck (link). Efficient evasion beats with counter back-up.
I was also thinking of adding 2 Prognostic Sphinx, but wouldn't know what to cut. An alternative route is U/G with Drakewing Krasis and Horizon Chimera, or U/B with Duskmantle Seer..
Ideas? Suggestions? Criticism? I am also wondering if there are good sideboard options I missed. Fire away!
(And yes, it sucks that Favorable Winds is rotating out.)
I'd like this thread back in the Standard Deck Creation forum. Thank you.
4 Judge's Familiar
4 Vaporkin
4 Metropolis Sprite
4 Warden of Evos Isle
4 Nimbus Naiad
4 Dissolve
3 Disperse
3 Bident of Thassa
22 island
4 hands of binding
4 negate
3 mizzium skin
3 air servant
1 Disperse
I'm not a regular Standard player, but I wanted to scrape together a deck for the coming Game Day that is at the same time cool to play, cheap to build and at least a little bit competitive. The deck is built to work like the old Blue Skies deck (link). Efficient evasion beats with counter back-up.
I was also thinking of adding 2 Prognostic Sphinx, but wouldn't know what to cut. An alternative route is U/G with Drakewing Krasis and Horizon Chimera, or U/B with Duskmantle Seer..
Ideas? Suggestions? Criticism? I am also wondering if there are good sideboard options I missed. Fire away!
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Indeed, Fog Bank-like creatures. Guard Gomazoa and Gomazoa also deter people from attacking you