I agree this could have some use. I'm willing to experiment with it as a 2-of in a planned Delver variant, but no more. It's a bad topdeck, after all, especially if you have no draw power... and let's not even talk about getting Thought Scour'd or Nephalia Drownyarded after it resolves...
But regardless of how many shortcomings it could potentially have, we'll get nothing out of speculating. We gotta try it out and have some couple dozen solid matches to see whether it's gonna be worth it or not...
I agree that he doesn't synergize with the deck very well, not being a Zed himself, but he has its uses, as mentioned before: can take out naked Crusaders, flipped Delvers, and even trades with a 3/3 Champion. He plays well with Mortarpod and Altar's Reap, and can carry a sword in its beak, just as said before, so why not try him out? If he's THAT disappointing, just revert to Highborn and put him back in the pile.
I have a question regarding him, though: if you block a Strangleroot Geist, which triggers first, Undying or the 2 dmg? Might be relevant in some matchup.
You could get more loops going with sun titans and clone creatures.
Biggie.
I agree. I see there is also a need of more 2-drops to help you Pod up from a Bird and a Pilgrim.
If I may suggest, from the days when I played Pod and based on what's available, you'd do well to add Phyrexian Metamorph in at least 2 spots, especially give the synergy with Hippo: copy Solemn, Pod the Morph for a Hippo. You can even copy the Hippo to rescue even more things from your 'yard when things get hairy.
You could perhaps cut 1 Myr and 1 Splicer for the 2 Metamorphs. If you can't find space in your game plan for Sunnies and Images, at least try Metamorph-- and if you do end up adding more copy effects, definitely add some Slimes to complete the package.
Then, the main problem I'm running into is, what kind of shell do I want this in? I know the colors, and I know what I'm using each walker for, but what would be the main strategy? The increased aggro and Undying will make me want to run Black Sun's Zenith and I definitely want to play Lingering Souls and Midnight Haunting, but... that's all I got. Going aggro or control is hard to decide, at least for me right now.
Sorry, but... has it already been noted that he can reset YOUR OWN Planeswalkers with his Ultimate? o.o
Talk about an insane board position. You could use Gideon's +2 and his -2 in the same turn. You could use Liliana's -2 twice in the same turn. You could use Tezzeret's +1 twice in the same turn.
Just something else to think about. Nothing backbreaking.
It was a B/G deck that had nothing but ramp and fatties on it: no removal, no draw, nothing but T1 ramp, T2 ramp, T3 ramp, T4+ fatty after fatty. The weirdest thing about it was that every time he ramped, the guy would claim 'ADVANTAGE!' in broken English. Made me lol every time.
Rally the peasants might not be bad... Boost for infect has proven to be pretty, pretty good.
I can actually see this working to Flashback if you run Opals... not a bad idea at all, especially with the volume of creatures.
But as others have stated, you want to minimize on creatures higher than 3-4 CMC, and adding U for more draw power, and I can see this getting there fairly easy. You can even run Probes MB and put Agents in the SB...
I'll give you props for the idea, as it seems sweet and good for a meta sneak attack. I'd -1 DoJ and +1 Gambit if I ran it, and if you decide to splash for U, consider Feeling of Dread to confuse people even more.
I've seen the gimmick where you can use Fiend Hunter on one of your bombs, sweep, and keep your bomb afterwards. Try it on Sun Titan for extra shenanigans.
I really really don't like Gut Shot... Seems like such a bad card in this deck. And Mental Misstep is questionable at best.
If you're going to play Gut Shot, just play Dismember, it works great for me.
Big question... Where are your Dissipates?
I like the idea of adding red, Olivia Seems like a great idea. Chandra could be useful, testing will tell.
Ultimately, I think you should stick with U/B as red won't likely give you enough, but your testing will determine if that's the case or not.
-Yeah, I understand where you're coming from-- with no way to activate Metalcraft, Galvanic Blast just felt like it wasn't going to do its job as more than just a Shock to deal with creatures... then I thought, there's things you want to stop T1 like Delver, Noble, BoP, Elder, Bear, Champion... I'm already unsettled by aggro's strong influence around that running Dismember feels kind of dangerous, BUT I can see your point and I'd have to normally agree with you. However, setting up the tempo by disrupting T1 plays seems to give me a lot more breathing room to advance into a T2 removal/permission, T3 draw/removal/permission, etc. That's why I thought about maining Misstep as well, at least temporarily.
-Dissipates I tried, and I love, and I've been strongly considering switching out the Missteps in their place, but I'd do it if I wasn't as worried about the early game as I am with all these early beats going around...
So perhaps I'd be better off going -2 Missteps, +2 Dissipates? What do we think about Slagstorm, though? 3 sweepers feels okay with Snaps in the mix, but my main reason for not adding them is tweaking the manabase to try to get double-R by T3... I'm not too worried. I don't feel pressured by FNM's at all-- rather, they're fun and a chance to experiment for more serious play on Sundays. There WILL be changes made, I'm sure, but for now... this is all I got.
I examined the different kinds of decks and I'm inclined to try out a remix of the list that Top 8'd the recent SCG Open at St. Louis. There are a couple key things I don't agree with the list, so I decided to switch it around to better suit my meta-- most Japanese players over here are VERY open to test many things so it's mad unpredictable in my LGS... their influence gets to me too, and I'm in the mood for testing more often than not.
Chandra's inclusion has been debated a lot, I think, and I suppose her main weakness is her 'does too little when she drops' aspect: I mean, you'd have to have 6-7 mana open to get anything REALLY useful as soon as you drop her, like a removal or draw spell to copy, but I can see that we have enough resources to protect her for just one turn, let you untap with her, and start the shenanigans. On testing, I've only forked Vengeance twice against other control decks, while against aggro I find it better to simply counter/remove anything that pushes 3-4+ damage at once. Not possible every time, but we work with what we have.
Frosty's there because he's generally hard to get rid of without sac effects (sucks to have him Cloned though) and because he shuts down whatever is threatening us for a little while: that Wurmcoil you can't Blade, that Hero you don't want attacking, or that land you don't want untapping. I've been switching back and forth between him and Grave, and honestly, I can't reach a proper decision to play for keeps. You can't deny Grave's potential in every situation (as I have used him in the past to great effect too) but he can always be swapped if things don't go well.
Ravings is also a hot topic to debate: so far, none of my buddies agree with me playing it. I was sold with Chapin's explanation of its uses, however, and while it HAS fizzled on me to the point of costing me games, I have been satisfied with the overall CA I get out of it, whether it's an extra land, another removal or another Snapmage, I've yet to be *severely* disappointed and/or frustrated with it. Will the time come for Think Twice to come back into the deck? Perhaps, but not for now...
Playing Vengeance is simply there to take advantage of Snaps, Chandra, and the deck's overall clearing power: resolving a Life's Finale is key for this, unless it's Solar Flare or I suspect a Sun Titan incoming or something of the sort. Against tokens, I have a rough G1, but after siding, Ratchet Bomb is a good tool to help out. Same against Mono-Red, which is why I had to keep at least 2 Wurmcoils around... tested Batterskull, wasn't extremely impressed (even though it's an above-average card), so decided to settle for 2 Engines divided between main and side. Lifegain's taken care of as well with the Vengeance against Red, but as always, the problem would be to... survive?
TL;DR I'll let you know how all these crazy things operate later on once I get some real games in.
Mind Rot also plays nice with Snapcaster Mage... what do you think merits playing it, if it becomes playable at all in a non-draw-go build? I'd think it could be a good curve ball against most decks, but it seems too slow as a sorcery (plus the fact it takes care of nothing on the field)...
I don't know if this has been asked before, but will a flashed spell by Snapcaster get copied by Chandra 3.0's -2?
@twistednic, you say you have a few issues with a T2 Dungrove... what do you think about Geth's Verdict or some similar effect, at least on the side? Not a reason to run Liliana on the main but it can be randomly helpful here and there-- I know it has been for me, but hey, let's ask first.
Phyrexian Obliterator? Call me crazy now, but I'm trying it as a one-of next week... I'm a fan of 'silver bullets' and I don't particularly care about never being able to hardcast it when I have discard outlets and ways to bring it back into play. Plus it plays nice with PI. I'll let you know how it works... just testing things out, after all.
But regardless of how many shortcomings it could potentially have, we'll get nothing out of speculating. We gotta try it out and have some couple dozen solid matches to see whether it's gonna be worth it or not...
I have a question regarding him, though: if you block a Strangleroot Geist, which triggers first, Undying or the 2 dmg? Might be relevant in some matchup.
I agree. I see there is also a need of more 2-drops to help you Pod up from a Bird and a Pilgrim.
If I may suggest, from the days when I played Pod and based on what's available, you'd do well to add Phyrexian Metamorph in at least 2 spots, especially give the synergy with Hippo: copy Solemn, Pod the Morph for a Hippo. You can even copy the Hippo to rescue even more things from your 'yard when things get hairy.
You could perhaps cut 1 Myr and 1 Splicer for the 2 Metamorphs. If you can't find space in your game plan for Sunnies and Images, at least try Metamorph-- and if you do end up adding more copy effects, definitely add some Slimes to complete the package.
My planned planeswalker package:
2 Liliana of the Veil
2 Gideon Jura
2 Venser, the Sojourner
1 Karn Liberated
Then, the main problem I'm running into is, what kind of shell do I want this in? I know the colors, and I know what I'm using each walker for, but what would be the main strategy? The increased aggro and Undying will make me want to run Black Sun's Zenith and I definitely want to play Lingering Souls and Midnight Haunting, but... that's all I got. Going aggro or control is hard to decide, at least for me right now.
I shall be following this thread closely.
Talk about an insane board position. You could use Gideon's +2 and his -2 in the same turn. You could use Liliana's -2 twice in the same turn. You could use Tezzeret's +1 twice in the same turn.
Just something else to think about. Nothing backbreaking.
I can actually see this working to Flashback if you run Opals... not a bad idea at all, especially with the volume of creatures.
But as others have stated, you want to minimize on creatures higher than 3-4 CMC, and adding U for more draw power, and I can see this getting there fairly easy. You can even run Probes MB and put Agents in the SB...
I'll give you props for the idea, as it seems sweet and good for a meta sneak attack.
-Yeah, I understand where you're coming from-- with no way to activate Metalcraft, Galvanic Blast just felt like it wasn't going to do its job as more than just a Shock to deal with creatures... then I thought, there's things you want to stop T1 like Delver, Noble, BoP, Elder, Bear, Champion... I'm already unsettled by aggro's strong influence around that running Dismember feels kind of dangerous, BUT I can see your point and I'd have to normally agree with you. However, setting up the tempo by disrupting T1 plays seems to give me a lot more breathing room to advance into a T2 removal/permission, T3 draw/removal/permission, etc. That's why I thought about maining Misstep as well, at least temporarily.
-Dissipates I tried, and I love, and I've been strongly considering switching out the Missteps in their place, but I'd do it if I wasn't as worried about the early game as I am with all these early beats going around...
So perhaps I'd be better off going -2 Missteps, +2 Dissipates? What do we think about Slagstorm, though? 3 sweepers feels okay with Snaps in the mix, but my main reason for not adding them is tweaking the manabase to try to get double-R by T3... I'm not too worried. I don't feel pressured by FNM's at all-- rather, they're fun and a chance to experiment for more serious play on Sundays. There WILL be changes made, I'm sure, but for now... this is all I got.
I examined the different kinds of decks and I'm inclined to try out a remix of the list that Top 8'd the recent SCG Open at St. Louis. There are a couple key things I don't agree with the list, so I decided to switch it around to better suit my meta-- most Japanese players over here are VERY open to test many things so it's mad unpredictable in my LGS... their influence gets to me too, and I'm in the mood for testing more often than not.
This is what I got for tomorrow's FNM:
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Olivia Voldaren
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Frost Titan
Instants (19):
4 Forbidden Alchemy
3 Desperate Ravings
4 Mana Leak
3 Doom Blade
2 Gut Shot
2 Mental Misstep
1 Go for the Throat
2 Chandra, the Firebrand
Sorceries (5):
2 Black Sun's Zenith
1 Life's Finale
2 Sorin's Vengeance
Lands (26):
6 Island
2 Mountain
4 Swamp
4 Darkslick Shores
3 Dragonskull Summit
3 Drowned Catacombs
4 Sulfur Falls
1 Mimic Vat
3 Phantasmal Image
1 Traitorous Blood
1 Geth's Verdict
2 Negate
1 Wurmcoil Engine
3 Surgical Extraction
3 Ratchet Bomb
Chandra's inclusion has been debated a lot, I think, and I suppose her main weakness is her 'does too little when she drops' aspect: I mean, you'd have to have 6-7 mana open to get anything REALLY useful as soon as you drop her, like a removal or draw spell to copy, but I can see that we have enough resources to protect her for just one turn, let you untap with her, and start the shenanigans. On testing, I've only forked Vengeance twice against other control decks, while against aggro I find it better to simply counter/remove anything that pushes 3-4+ damage at once. Not possible every time, but we work with what we have.
Frosty's there because he's generally hard to get rid of without sac effects (sucks to have him Cloned though) and because he shuts down whatever is threatening us for a little while: that Wurmcoil you can't Blade, that Hero you don't want attacking, or that land you don't want untapping. I've been switching back and forth between him and Grave, and honestly, I can't reach a proper decision to play for keeps. You can't deny Grave's potential in every situation (as I have used him in the past to great effect too) but he can always be swapped if things don't go well.
Ravings is also a hot topic to debate: so far, none of my buddies agree with me playing it.
Playing Vengeance is simply there to take advantage of Snaps, Chandra, and the deck's overall clearing power: resolving a Life's Finale is key for this, unless it's Solar Flare or I suspect a Sun Titan incoming or something of the sort. Against tokens, I have a rough G1, but after siding, Ratchet Bomb is a good tool to help out. Same against Mono-Red, which is why I had to keep at least 2 Wurmcoils around... tested Batterskull, wasn't extremely impressed (even though it's an above-average card), so decided to settle for 2 Engines divided between main and side. Lifegain's taken care of as well with the Vengeance against Red, but as always, the problem would be to... survive?
TL;DR I'll let you know how all these crazy things operate later on once I get some real games in.
I don't know if this has been asked before, but will a flashed spell by Snapcaster get copied by Chandra 3.0's -2?
Phyrexian Obliterator? Call me crazy now, but I'm trying it as a one-of next week... I'm a fan of 'silver bullets' and I don't particularly care about never being able to hardcast it when I have discard outlets and ways to bring it back into play. Plus it plays nice with PI. I'll let you know how it works... just testing things out, after all.