Hi all... first time poster, and new Chainer, Dementia Master player. I have put together a list similar to the ones I have seen here and have a quick question (I am sure more questions to arrive soon).
What do you think about (or have you ever played) Vampire Hexmage? My playgroup utilizes a ton of Planeswalkers and/or creatures with +1/+1 counters and it seems that Chainer could use and abuse her ability quite nicely.
I think that hexmage is definitely a viable meta choice. I will say, however, that if you're gonna play hexmage, then dark depths becomes a very viable. Especially with crucible of worlds.
Would either of the two of you have decklists that you could post? I'm rather curious as to what you consider the business spells of a chainer deck at the upper end of the curve - especially given how high my average cmc is right now. Also, thoughts on dark tutelage?
Did anyone wind up actually making the transition to a more dark confidant focused Chainer build? I'm looking at doing it myself, and I'm curious to see what other people did.
I'm currently testing out Generator, and while I don't think it's going to remain in the deck, it's not quite as bad as made out to be, simply because of the fact that it's a land, and as such, you don't HAVE to activate the ability to generate value out of it. I do think that the value of it goes up dramatically the more card draw you have in your deck. I also think that the value of it goes up dramatically the more artifact mana ramp (worn powerstone, et al) you have in your deck - colourless mana sinks are pretty useful in this deck, I've found.
Satchel, on the other hand, I think is a waste of a perfectly good card slot. I'm not running Scrying sheets, and that does a fair replication of the best-case scenario for satchel, and it doesn't even cost a card. The lifegain is worthless (relative to the mana cost), sheets does (an albeit worse version of) the ramp ability without costing cards, and if I wanted creature tokens, I would play bitterblossom - which both costs less mana to play, AND doesn't cost mana every turn too.
Wait, has Terrain Generator actually been useful for people? It's something that's been on my radar for a while, but I can never bring myself to include it due to the whole not-being-a-swamp thing.
Here's a fun one - Staff of Domination has just been unbanned. I used to run it before it was banned in the first place - anyone else going to pick one up?
I usually find that if I can untap with Damia, I just straight up win shortly after. Any opinions regarding all is dust as suggested by MrCoupon? Also, ever considered a small package of, say, trinket mage/sensei's divining top/mana crypt?
I think you should make space for Academy ruins. Let's be honest - given the deck, it's pretty much exactly what the doctor ordered. How have you found Synod Artificer? I just cut it from my build - didn't do a hell of a lot for me. I also think that Spellskite would be useful to protect Damia - especially given the amount of artifact recursion in this deck.
I find that the way this deck goes, it's kind of irrelevant exactly what I use to kill people - the deck tends to auto-win once I've hit a critical mass of swamps (assuming, that is, that people blow up my coffers - which they should).
Magus got a his own discussion earlier on in the thread - I stand by the statement I made then. He costs too much to cast, can't be used immediately, has a massive target on his head, and is generally not worth the effort. If he had some ETB trigger in addition to his ability, he would be worth a second look, but as it stands, paying five mana for something that doesn't do anything immediately generally isn't what this deck wants.
This is meta-dependent, but I've found gate to be incredibly average - sometimes useful, other times appallingly bad. If your meta is full of artifacts, your mileage may vary, but whenever I try to put it into the deck, inevitably I find myself swapping it out for something more consistently useful.
I'm not entirely certain if Slum reaper is worthwhile keeping in the deck in addition to fleshbag marauder. It's not an ability that we really need to get multiples of, and the card is fairly resilient to being exiled simply due to it's self-sacrificing nature. Thoughts?
I strongly believe that duplicant has a place in this deck. Also, Skeleton Shard provides another bit of grinding card advantage in case people decide that they don't want Damia hanging about. Myr Battlesphere by itself provides you with a number of bodies to throw equipment on, let alone the absurdity when it and master of etherium get involved. Have you tried Sphinx Summoner? Also, Stolen identity begs for a look.
I'm not entirely certain if Bloodbraid elf is worthwhile in here. Cascading into, say, smash or Vithian Renegades is rather suboptimal if you've already blown up all the artifacts in play/have yet to get a lattice or coating. Perhaps use a generic goodstuff dude like forgotten ancient? A lot of your creatures are, shall we say, rather small, and being able to spread +1/+1 counters around can only do you good.
When I first looked at extort, I basically said the same thing to myself. "Oh good, one new card for Chainer, and the rest go to the junk box". However, the price of testing these cards is literally nothing. I already have each and every one of them sitting in a box leftover from the prerelease.
As such, I'm willing to give them a shot. It's not as though we're espousing the view that these cards are auto-includes in every deck - simply considering their usability. If I try it out, and it's trash, then I'll drop 'em. I'd just like to see other people give it a shot too - at the very least, they could be potential includes for the budget Chainer list discussion that was floating about a little while ago.
I think that hexmage is definitely a viable meta choice. I will say, however, that if you're gonna play hexmage, then dark depths becomes a very viable. Especially with crucible of worlds.
Satchel, on the other hand, I think is a waste of a perfectly good card slot. I'm not running Scrying sheets, and that does a fair replication of the best-case scenario for satchel, and it doesn't even cost a card. The lifegain is worthless (relative to the mana cost), sheets does (an albeit worse version of) the ramp ability without costing cards, and if I wanted creature tokens, I would play bitterblossom - which both costs less mana to play, AND doesn't cost mana every turn too.
As such, I'm willing to give them a shot. It's not as though we're espousing the view that these cards are auto-includes in every deck - simply considering their usability. If I try it out, and it's trash, then I'll drop 'em. I'd just like to see other people give it a shot too - at the very least, they could be potential includes for the budget Chainer list discussion that was floating about a little while ago.