Scenario: Geist of Saint Traft attacks and puts a 4/4 angel token into play. Is there never a trigger to exile the token if Restoration Angel blinks the Geist before damage?
Question: What happens if, on my opponent's end step, I cast Desperate Ravings, revealing a miracle card for the first card I draw? Does Ravings finish resolving, and the card goes into my hand? If this is true, can it be discarded, and if so, can I still cast it? Or can I cast the spell halfway through Ravings' resolution and get it on the stack?
Counterlash's oracle text says that the timing restrictions of the card being cast from your hand should Counterlash resolve are ignored. I'm wondering if this truly is different from Havengul Lich. Can I cast any creature at instant speed with Havengul Lich?
Also, it needs to be considered that this is a monoUUW deck. It falls into a similar category as The Deck, the UW five-color control deck that had no sb and won handily. It was a UW that splashed for burn removal, black disruption, and some green ramp.
UW Pike is a monoblue UW deck. The reason we have never considered Doomed Traveler before is that it is optimal as a t1 play; it wants white mana on turn 1. This deck wants to make blue mana on turn 1, as Delver is better. Humans plays Traveler because it is a monoWUW deck. They are both UW, but one is base white (not this deck) and one is base blue.
A final note: Jblaze, this list does not synergize in enough relevant ways. You do not have swords, which is the primary reason to have evasive or hex proof guys in the first place. You do not have spirit-generating effects for your 4-of lord. And if you try to make consistent white mana on turn one, then you need to reexamine your mana base, which is trying to do something completely different from every other UW Pikeblade list.
In my mirrors, or any match against any semblance of an aggressive deck, I found tempo to be the most important factor that decided who won or lost the game. If Revoke Existence were an instant, then I would pair it with this and watch as your attacks are suddenly the only ones that matter. As this is not the case, and Scarecrow loses to Swords, then I do not recommend this.
I recommend instead Feeling of Dread. Bear in mind how this card should be played, in response to the equip of a Sword to target anything. Also bear in mind for all those who will be yelling at their screens trying to tell me that sword gives pro white, a fact that I am well aware of, Vapor Snag does exist. A key factor to keep in mind: this deck is not Caw-Blade. They are both aggro-control, but Caw-Blade erred on the side of control in the aggro-control hybrid. It could afford to simply neuter the offense of opponents, because no other deck in that format could compare with the Batterskull-Sword nonsense that we could do then. UW Pike errs on the aggro side of aggro-control, and cannot rely on control-like cards that do not contribute to offense in any way. Ergo, tempo cards that gain incremental advantage with small amounts of diminishing returns are the cards this deck wants.
Vapor Snag provides virtually no advantage vs those creatures.
Though I do agree with most of the points in your post.
The advantage does not come from nothing happening when the creature resolves. It comes from the creature not being there when you enter the declare blockers step. Solemn and Primeval Titan put lands into play. This is more than acceptable, as the only land that should matter is Nexus being a blocker. Slime can kill a sword at best. This is something of an issue. Grave Titan puts more blockers into play. This is a significant issue, and should probably be the primary target of what counter magic you choose to run. I didn't know the complete list until now. Snag is excellent against Solemn and Primeval Titan, as their abilities do little to impact the board. Slime might be snagged if them wasting 5 mana to cast it again will cost them the game (again why this deck really needs 4 Gitaxian Probes).
Grave Titan is unfortunate. This is why I would consider some more counter magic, though as there is no creature recursion in Conley's deck, I would probably aim for Psychic Barrier before Dissipate, as it is still a 2-mana counter. Exiling a titan is not important in this match, as Wolf Run's graveyard in this case is just not relevant. So I would rather have a counter spell that costs 2 and pings them for a point then an exile clause that is not important. I'm not saying that Dissipate is bad sb; it just is not what you should be bringing in here. Fortunately, Green Sun's Zenith is not Chord of Calling; it only gets green creatures, which are just not as good as Grave Titan. Now that I see this list, boarding in at least one more sword, if not two, seems like a good plan. It gives Geist a better chance of evasion if this is what is going to be big now. The plan is still to be the aggressive player dominating the game. We don't need 7 counter spells, as that is leaving open mana too much of the time. We don't need to leave mana open until we have threats on board and they have ramped to 6-7 mana, which will be t4 if they are dedicated but killed nothing and t5-6 if they tried to solve the board earlier.
I had the opposite experience at SCG DC. I got destroyed by the Conley list twice. The issue is you've got to play both control and aggro to beat them... you've got to have a hand with a fast clock and counter their ramp, or they get out of range of Mana Leak fast. Basically unless you've got the perfect hand they are going to smash you.
I also could have just been playing the match up wrong.
I think counters are the way to go, but if you let it go long your the underdog they have a better end game then us, and if you try to extend and take them down quickly before the can get to there end game they punish you with cards that net them tons of card advantage such as BSZ.
It's way different from normal Wolf Run.
Might be useful, I don't know that it helps against there inevitable sweepers, or Geth's Verdict but could be useful if you get the chance to develop a board.
The approach should still be to play aggressive. DelverPike and other lists since are still far more on the aggro side than control side of the aggro-control hybrid. Yes, they have a wrath. If they cast it for 3 mana, it shouldn't screw you too much, as all that should die is an unequipped Stalker or unflipped Delver. If they cast it for four mana, your board will likely die unless stalker is equipped by then. You can do two things: not empty your entire hand (which this deck really doesn't want to do anyway) or use a soft counter to stop the wrath. We have been handling 4 mana wraths for a while, to the point where UW control has only put one deck in top 8 for the past 3 SCG's.
You will have to accept that they have removal. You play aggressive, while playing smart, minimizing their wraths and focusing on sticking a sword. The amount of hexproof that we have access to should actually render the type of sword that's equipped rather moot for defensive purposes; just sticking a creature and sword should be ok.
Your saving grace is in the fact that you still define how the games go. They either have to kill your guys or ramp in stage 1, then they need a window for stage 2, at which point they try to set up a stage 3 where it is not plausible that you will have threats. Your plan: stick threats and turn them sideways. Your reach comes in the form of Moorland Haunt, and your biggest advantage is information given by Gitaxian Probe. Casting it at any point against a deck that is quite linear should give you a good idea on how quickly they can get to stages 2 and 3.
You don't need a nut draw. You need a draw that can win you the game. This is why aggro-control is stronger than pure aggro; you have more than your top 11-12 cards of your library to win a game. If your hand has a good creature or two, a ponder, and decent land, then it has a shot of winning the game. As always, we need to be disciplined when we play, and develop the draw so we have a sword, probe, soft counters, and enough gas to kill the opponent. The deck is certainly good enough to do it. We are now playing against a control deck in disguise, that has either a fast stage 3 that doesn't stop us or a slow one that tries. It's decks like these that make Midnight Haunting weak, and Vapor Snag strong.
If I use Chandra, the Firebrand's -2 ability, may I pick the two different modes of Slagstorm? May I deal 3 damage to all creatures and 3 to each player in this way?
A friend was telling me that if I activated the ability of Necropotence at the end of my end step (which I'm not entirely sure when this is), then I would be able to put the cards into my hand immediately. When is "my next discard phase", and when is the ideal time to activate this?
Originally posted by Lord of Saanich
I will be taking squad hawks out (rotation aside), I'm just not happy with them in there. Out of the current pool I'll probably go 1-2 glint hawk and 2-3 vault Skirge. Just miss those guys. ;-). I'm traveling tonight so missing probably the last FNM I'll play pre rotation, but who knows what Innistrad will bring. Pretty excited either way, this deck should just get better!
My group has also come to the consensus that Vault Skirge is a fantastic creature in this deck. Flyers are so incredibly important, especially when attempting to connect with Feast and Famine and taking an extra turn's worth of actions. The lifelink, just as it was on Batterskull, will be relevant, particularly for putting yourself out of range from aggro or giving you that much extra time to draw well against control.
Originally Posted by Great White Coley
I think the general consensus is if you want to play a beater, hero is better at that CC slot or if you wanna go higher you have titan. Maybe a sideboard if you are playing against a removal heavy deck, as it will probably frustrate them to no end.
I suggest everyone go a ways back and read a those pages. You will find this: this was the point where Dan.f attempted to bring the other discussers into the original context of the deck, particularly the versions Caleb Durward had such success and LSV endorsed to a degree. The conclusion he presented to us is: what makes a beater of this sort necessary? Connecting with a sword tends to do at least as much in damage, and more in overall value, than simply turning a big attacker sideways. To that end, you will not find a lot of beaters in these decks, as connecting with a sword, done best by Etched Champion is more effective.
This is also the reason I am less than impressed with Mirran Crusader, having tested him against a wide range of decks. He is very good at killing Caw-Blade when he is equipped with a Sword of War and Peace. Apart from that, he is inferior to Etched Champion in both offensive and defensive capabilities. In my testing, the trade-off of potentially hitting with a sword twice has not been worth the inconsistency and weakness that Mirran Crusader has, and Etched Champion has far less.
Originally Posted by Angry? Apples!
Just my opinion, but I think that you should have spellskite in the board regardless of whether or not you are playing with Squire. It does so much to protect Paladins from targeted removal (as long as your skites are not equipped with a pro-color sword that is).
I would go a step further; I play with 3 Spellskite main, as they help to shore up difficult matches and solidify the Paladin plan. It is an excellent defender against burn-based aggro, and is, of course, excellent at redirecting removal aimed at Puresteel Paladin.
Im not sure if "useless" is the word I would use to describe brass squire. He does several things: free equipment equips and instant speed equips. Unfortunately for him, we already have free equips with Pally and metalcraft, and we can do multiple equips, where as squire can only do one (as he has to tap to do it).
His other ability (the fact that he can move an equipment at instant speed) is something that we currently cannot do, but the only benefit I can see there is if you want to move a SoF&F to a dude in response to a GftT/DB/Dismember, or SoW&P in response to a lightning bolt type effect.
Long story short, it feels like he is greatly overshadowed by Pally&metalcraft.
I would like to ask how much testing you have actually put in with Brass Squire, and what number you chose. I also thought of the Squire when I was first testing this deck some number of months ago; here's what I found: the less Brass Squire you run (1-2), you would not find him when you needed him. He would be a 1/3 that was too late; you had either won or lost the game at that point. When, however, I started testing with 3, this changed dramatically. Brass Squire becomes the extra copies of Puresteel Paladin, at least in regards to board position, which was very important. Instead of casting t2 Puresteel Paladin (assuming it was the right move to make, of course), it would often become t2 Spellskite, t3 Brass Squire, t4 Sword X and connect.
The Squire adds a new type of threat to the deck, both similar and vastly different from Puresteel Paladin. I would encourage you all to take him for another spin, keeping a couple of things in mind.
1. If played, Brass Squire should generally be a 3-of. As a three-drop, he doesn't double up exceptionally well, but we shouldn't be over-committing to the board anyway.
2. You should also be running 3-4 Spellskite, as it is the best two drop to combine with the Squire, protecting it and baiting out kill spells when swords hit play.
3. It is perfectly fine to wait until after your Squire loses sickness on your turn, then pay mana to equip. If the colors of your sword are right (making War and Peace and Feast and Famine better here), then your opponent will not be able to respond, as your Squire can proceed to equip anyways.
4. The Squire, in my opinion, makes it easier to not overextend, as you are at that point running more copies of Puresteel Paladin, even if you can only affect the board state with this one.
On other notes, my latest testing has been with the mana base for UW, looking specifically at number of blue sources that I want and number of lands in general. This has been my focus for the past month, and I have come to some conclusions.
1. Decks not investing in counterspells or Batterskulls can get away with a grand total of 23 mana sources, between lands and Mox Opals. For Paladin decks that aim to be more aggro-control, who want to be more comfortable in their state 3 rather than attempting to beat everyone between stages 1 and 2 will want at least Batterskull (and the counterspells, 2 Deprive mb) have also been exceptionally helpful in the majority of match ups. If this is the route you choose, then you want at least 24, if not 25 mana sources; hitting land drops becomes more important.
2. Mox Opal has a very simple rule in this deck: you want a 0% chance of seeing 2 at one time. You can hardly ever benefit from multiples, and your opponents will not bother attacking them unless you are struggling to make mana ends meet. The card quality of this deck is already low, compensated by an exceptional amount of synergy. It's hard to put in cards that have a significant chance of being dead.
3. I have not done much testing with Argentum Armor, but it is plausible, as long as you realize a change you have to make to ensure the Armor doesn't kill you more than it vindicates their permanents. Your land drops become just as important to hit as in traditional control, and you should seriously consider heading in a control route that goes beyond Fish-style strategies.
4. Dispatch has been a point of contention among my group for some time. The debate goes like this: it's fantastic against non-burn style aggro and is exceptionally good against control decks. It is exceptionally poor against aggro decks that require you to remove their creatures instead of just tapping them for a turn, and is one of your worst cards against Splinter Twin. Twin thrives on having your main answer to the combo be a spell, and they do play their own Spellskites and Mental Missteps on occasion. You need a hard piece of removal, like Dismember, to beat Splinter Twin, and it is still good in most of your match ups. Irregardless of your removal suite, Spellskite just seems more and more important in combating your poorer match ups: faster aggro and combo.
5. When to play Puresteel Paladin depends a lot on how your opponent's deck will act, and how many Spellskites you can put into play first. Control decks are generally not happy to waste a Day of Judgment on your Trinket Mage and Flayer Husk token because they have to, only for you to follow up with a Puresteel Paladin. Likewise, U and G have a very significant amount of trouble dealing with a resolved Paladin; as long as you play around Mana Leak when possible, you should be fine.
Originally Posted by GreatWhiteColey:
I just went mono white, and while you loose some consistency and drawing with the loss of trinket mage and ponders, you pick up a lot of aggro. I haven't tried it outside of playing a few games against my other decks, but it is performing well enough against them.
Originally Posted by Cellar Door:
I feel like the list is still missing something, but I don't know what that something is. The Apostle's Blessing was actually a really nice card, and I would actually say it's a little better than spellskite for actually protecting your cards (only b/c of the surprise element). I feel like I need more gas in the deck and thought about adding squad hawks back in, but I'm not sure if that's the right direction to take it.
This is the inherent weakness of pure aggro (such as white aggro, which the mono W version of this deck is) and it is being found by the proponents of mono-white, a lack of consistency and a higher risk of losing gas. This is reason 1 of why we use U in this deck. It gives us a more consistent game and extra gas, lessening our reliance on Puresteel Paladin to have any game at all.
Perhaps I am wrong to want more "control" cards (Into the Roil, counterspells) but history tells us that these cards have worked to great effect in similar decks before. In any case, having blue mana for Preordain or Ponder, plus some situational hard counters out of the board has proven to yield the strongest iterations of this deck. Blue addresses the gas and consistency issues as it always has, smoothing it out with cheap cantrips and effects the other colors simply don't produce.
@ wie2323: The Mirran Crusader v. Etched Champion debate comes down to a meta choice; Mirran Crusader is overall far more powerful, but Etched Champion is far better against R and U. If the meta is based on red aggro and/or the blue based control decks, than Etched Champion will be a more consistent beater, but you will win your games slower. Mirran Crusader is exceptionally strong against Pod decks, but you will need Spellskite if you need the Crusader to compete with control decks.
In the decks I have played, Batterskull has always been effective, either at sealing the game against aggro decks or providing a recurrable threat against control decks. If the mana base is built correctly, then the cost of 5 should not be an issue, especially as no colors are necessary.
Sword of Body and Mind adds two interesting aspects to Mirran Crusader: it shores up his weakness to Into the Roil, and provides a plausible alternate win-con. Body and Mind is also strong against Pod, so if nothing else, I would advocate some sb slots for Body and Mind. If you are running primarily Crusaders and Spellskites, then at least one Body and Mind should be mb, as protection from blue is actually quite relevant against Bant Pod and UW control.
Against any Pod deck, Spellskite (and I suppose to a lesser degree, Apostle's Blessing) is very powerful. He's not as good against them as Torpor Orb, but they still can't hit what they want, which is Swords. Mb Skites seem essential to beat Pod.
Grafted exoskeleton is bad because you can't move it around for value with an active paladin. Once it's on a guy, it's on the guy forever unless you want him to die. Things like swords allow you to bulk up an attacker, swing for a lot of damage, and then move them all onto a blocker, so that you have all the power/ toughness bonuses on offence/defence.
Glint hawk isn't played because unless you have an active paladin, he doesn't do very much. And if you have an active paladin and equipment, then you are already winning.
I think he got the idea for Grafted Exoskeleton from my lists; I'm trying it as a one-of, and I feel that I need to explain how it should be used. The Exoskeleton only comes down to a Mirran Crusader or Squadron Hawks. Mirran Crusader kills quite easily with it, and it makes your Inkmoth Nexi that much better. But the best creature with it is Squadron Hawk; exoskeleton makes them each an Inkmoth Nexus. We don't need to be shifting exoskeleton around for defense like a sword, because it is likely you have a sword at that point. But now your better man-land has an entire deck of friends, rather than having to pick up the equipment itself.
I disagree with having two; this is not a card that you will be winning with often; it's the card that will steal you a win when normally you would lose. Therefore, this should be slow-rolled until you are set-up, than you proceed to win with Crusaders or you grind them with Squadron Hawks.
Glint Hawk fits the synergy of the deck, but he does not contribute to the tempo; in this deck, these are equally important, as we need to move at a defined and purposeful pace, using the synergy of our cards to match what will likely be the overall better card quality of the opponent.
UW Pike is a monoblue UW deck. The reason we have never considered Doomed Traveler before is that it is optimal as a t1 play; it wants white mana on turn 1. This deck wants to make blue mana on turn 1, as Delver is better. Humans plays Traveler because it is a monoW UW deck. They are both UW, but one is base white (not this deck) and one is base blue.
A final note: Jblaze, this list does not synergize in enough relevant ways. You do not have swords, which is the primary reason to have evasive or hex proof guys in the first place. You do not have spirit-generating effects for your 4-of lord. And if you try to make consistent white mana on turn one, then you need to reexamine your mana base, which is trying to do something completely different from every other UW Pikeblade list.
I recommend instead Feeling of Dread. Bear in mind how this card should be played, in response to the equip of a Sword to target anything. Also bear in mind for all those who will be yelling at their screens trying to tell me that sword gives pro white, a fact that I am well aware of, Vapor Snag does exist. A key factor to keep in mind: this deck is not Caw-Blade. They are both aggro-control, but Caw-Blade erred on the side of control in the aggro-control hybrid. It could afford to simply neuter the offense of opponents, because no other deck in that format could compare with the Batterskull-Sword nonsense that we could do then. UW Pike errs on the aggro side of aggro-control, and cannot rely on control-like cards that do not contribute to offense in any way. Ergo, tempo cards that gain incremental advantage with small amounts of diminishing returns are the cards this deck wants.
The advantage does not come from nothing happening when the creature resolves. It comes from the creature not being there when you enter the declare blockers step. Solemn and Primeval Titan put lands into play. This is more than acceptable, as the only land that should matter is Nexus being a blocker. Slime can kill a sword at best. This is something of an issue. Grave Titan puts more blockers into play. This is a significant issue, and should probably be the primary target of what counter magic you choose to run. I didn't know the complete list until now. Snag is excellent against Solemn and Primeval Titan, as their abilities do little to impact the board. Slime might be snagged if them wasting 5 mana to cast it again will cost them the game (again why this deck really needs 4 Gitaxian Probes).
Grave Titan is unfortunate. This is why I would consider some more counter magic, though as there is no creature recursion in Conley's deck, I would probably aim for Psychic Barrier before Dissipate, as it is still a 2-mana counter. Exiling a titan is not important in this match, as Wolf Run's graveyard in this case is just not relevant. So I would rather have a counter spell that costs 2 and pings them for a point then an exile clause that is not important. I'm not saying that Dissipate is bad sb; it just is not what you should be bringing in here. Fortunately, Green Sun's Zenith is not Chord of Calling; it only gets green creatures, which are just not as good as Grave Titan. Now that I see this list, boarding in at least one more sword, if not two, seems like a good plan. It gives Geist a better chance of evasion if this is what is going to be big now. The plan is still to be the aggressive player dominating the game. We don't need 7 counter spells, as that is leaving open mana too much of the time. We don't need to leave mana open until we have threats on board and they have ramped to 6-7 mana, which will be t4 if they are dedicated but killed nothing and t5-6 if they tried to solve the board earlier.
The approach should still be to play aggressive. DelverPike and other lists since are still far more on the aggro side than control side of the aggro-control hybrid. Yes, they have a wrath. If they cast it for 3 mana, it shouldn't screw you too much, as all that should die is an unequipped Stalker or unflipped Delver. If they cast it for four mana, your board will likely die unless stalker is equipped by then. You can do two things: not empty your entire hand (which this deck really doesn't want to do anyway) or use a soft counter to stop the wrath. We have been handling 4 mana wraths for a while, to the point where UW control has only put one deck in top 8 for the past 3 SCG's.
You will have to accept that they have removal. You play aggressive, while playing smart, minimizing their wraths and focusing on sticking a sword. The amount of hexproof that we have access to should actually render the type of sword that's equipped rather moot for defensive purposes; just sticking a creature and sword should be ok.
Your saving grace is in the fact that you still define how the games go. They either have to kill your guys or ramp in stage 1, then they need a window for stage 2, at which point they try to set up a stage 3 where it is not plausible that you will have threats. Your plan: stick threats and turn them sideways. Your reach comes in the form of Moorland Haunt, and your biggest advantage is information given by Gitaxian Probe. Casting it at any point against a deck that is quite linear should give you a good idea on how quickly they can get to stages 2 and 3.
You don't need a nut draw. You need a draw that can win you the game. This is why aggro-control is stronger than pure aggro; you have more than your top 11-12 cards of your library to win a game. If your hand has a good creature or two, a ponder, and decent land, then it has a shot of winning the game. As always, we need to be disciplined when we play, and develop the draw so we have a sword, probe, soft counters, and enough gas to kill the opponent. The deck is certainly good enough to do it. We are now playing against a control deck in disguise, that has either a fast stage 3 that doesn't stop us or a slow one that tries. It's decks like these that make Midnight Haunting weak, and Vapor Snag strong.
My group has also come to the consensus that Vault Skirge is a fantastic creature in this deck. Flyers are so incredibly important, especially when attempting to connect with Feast and Famine and taking an extra turn's worth of actions. The lifelink, just as it was on Batterskull, will be relevant, particularly for putting yourself out of range from aggro or giving you that much extra time to draw well against control.
I suggest everyone go a ways back and read a those pages. You will find this: this was the point where Dan.f attempted to bring the other discussers into the original context of the deck, particularly the versions Caleb Durward had such success and LSV endorsed to a degree. The conclusion he presented to us is: what makes a beater of this sort necessary? Connecting with a sword tends to do at least as much in damage, and more in overall value, than simply turning a big attacker sideways. To that end, you will not find a lot of beaters in these decks, as connecting with a sword, done best by Etched Champion is more effective.
This is also the reason I am less than impressed with Mirran Crusader, having tested him against a wide range of decks. He is very good at killing Caw-Blade when he is equipped with a Sword of War and Peace. Apart from that, he is inferior to Etched Champion in both offensive and defensive capabilities. In my testing, the trade-off of potentially hitting with a sword twice has not been worth the inconsistency and weakness that Mirran Crusader has, and Etched Champion has far less.
I would go a step further; I play with 3 Spellskite main, as they help to shore up difficult matches and solidify the Paladin plan. It is an excellent defender against burn-based aggro, and is, of course, excellent at redirecting removal aimed at Puresteel Paladin.
I would like to ask how much testing you have actually put in with Brass Squire, and what number you chose. I also thought of the Squire when I was first testing this deck some number of months ago; here's what I found: the less Brass Squire you run (1-2), you would not find him when you needed him. He would be a 1/3 that was too late; you had either won or lost the game at that point. When, however, I started testing with 3, this changed dramatically. Brass Squire becomes the extra copies of Puresteel Paladin, at least in regards to board position, which was very important. Instead of casting t2 Puresteel Paladin (assuming it was the right move to make, of course), it would often become t2 Spellskite, t3 Brass Squire, t4 Sword X and connect.
The Squire adds a new type of threat to the deck, both similar and vastly different from Puresteel Paladin. I would encourage you all to take him for another spin, keeping a couple of things in mind.
1. If played, Brass Squire should generally be a 3-of. As a three-drop, he doesn't double up exceptionally well, but we shouldn't be over-committing to the board anyway.
2. You should also be running 3-4 Spellskite, as it is the best two drop to combine with the Squire, protecting it and baiting out kill spells when swords hit play.
3. It is perfectly fine to wait until after your Squire loses sickness on your turn, then pay mana to equip. If the colors of your sword are right (making War and Peace and Feast and Famine better here), then your opponent will not be able to respond, as your Squire can proceed to equip anyways.
4. The Squire, in my opinion, makes it easier to not overextend, as you are at that point running more copies of Puresteel Paladin, even if you can only affect the board state with this one.
On other notes, my latest testing has been with the mana base for UW, looking specifically at number of blue sources that I want and number of lands in general. This has been my focus for the past month, and I have come to some conclusions.
1. Decks not investing in counterspells or Batterskulls can get away with a grand total of 23 mana sources, between lands and Mox Opals. For Paladin decks that aim to be more aggro-control, who want to be more comfortable in their state 3 rather than attempting to beat everyone between stages 1 and 2 will want at least Batterskull (and the counterspells, 2 Deprive mb) have also been exceptionally helpful in the majority of match ups. If this is the route you choose, then you want at least 24, if not 25 mana sources; hitting land drops becomes more important.
2. Mox Opal has a very simple rule in this deck: you want a 0% chance of seeing 2 at one time. You can hardly ever benefit from multiples, and your opponents will not bother attacking them unless you are struggling to make mana ends meet. The card quality of this deck is already low, compensated by an exceptional amount of synergy. It's hard to put in cards that have a significant chance of being dead.
3. I have not done much testing with Argentum Armor, but it is plausible, as long as you realize a change you have to make to ensure the Armor doesn't kill you more than it vindicates their permanents. Your land drops become just as important to hit as in traditional control, and you should seriously consider heading in a control route that goes beyond Fish-style strategies.
4. Dispatch has been a point of contention among my group for some time. The debate goes like this: it's fantastic against non-burn style aggro and is exceptionally good against control decks. It is exceptionally poor against aggro decks that require you to remove their creatures instead of just tapping them for a turn, and is one of your worst cards against Splinter Twin. Twin thrives on having your main answer to the combo be a spell, and they do play their own Spellskites and Mental Missteps on occasion. You need a hard piece of removal, like Dismember, to beat Splinter Twin, and it is still good in most of your match ups. Irregardless of your removal suite, Spellskite just seems more and more important in combating your poorer match ups: faster aggro and combo.
5. When to play Puresteel Paladin depends a lot on how your opponent's deck will act, and how many Spellskites you can put into play first. Control decks are generally not happy to waste a Day of Judgment on your Trinket Mage and Flayer Husk token because they have to, only for you to follow up with a Puresteel Paladin. Likewise, U and G have a very significant amount of trouble dealing with a resolved Paladin; as long as you play around Mana Leak when possible, you should be fine.
This is the inherent weakness of pure aggro (such as white aggro, which the mono W version of this deck is) and it is being found by the proponents of mono-white, a lack of consistency and a higher risk of losing gas. This is reason 1 of why we use U in this deck. It gives us a more consistent game and extra gas, lessening our reliance on Puresteel Paladin to have any game at all.
Perhaps I am wrong to want more "control" cards (Into the Roil, counterspells) but history tells us that these cards have worked to great effect in similar decks before. In any case, having blue mana for Preordain or Ponder, plus some situational hard counters out of the board has proven to yield the strongest iterations of this deck. Blue addresses the gas and consistency issues as it always has, smoothing it out with cheap cantrips and effects the other colors simply don't produce.
@ wie2323: The Mirran Crusader v. Etched Champion debate comes down to a meta choice; Mirran Crusader is overall far more powerful, but Etched Champion is far better against R and U. If the meta is based on red aggro and/or the blue based control decks, than Etched Champion will be a more consistent beater, but you will win your games slower. Mirran Crusader is exceptionally strong against Pod decks, but you will need Spellskite if you need the Crusader to compete with control decks.
In the decks I have played, Batterskull has always been effective, either at sealing the game against aggro decks or providing a recurrable threat against control decks. If the mana base is built correctly, then the cost of 5 should not be an issue, especially as no colors are necessary.
Sword of Body and Mind adds two interesting aspects to Mirran Crusader: it shores up his weakness to Into the Roil, and provides a plausible alternate win-con. Body and Mind is also strong against Pod, so if nothing else, I would advocate some sb slots for Body and Mind. If you are running primarily Crusaders and Spellskites, then at least one Body and Mind should be mb, as protection from blue is actually quite relevant against Bant Pod and UW control.
Against any Pod deck, Spellskite (and I suppose to a lesser degree, Apostle's Blessing) is very powerful. He's not as good against them as Torpor Orb, but they still can't hit what they want, which is Swords. Mb Skites seem essential to beat Pod.
I think he got the idea for Grafted Exoskeleton from my lists; I'm trying it as a one-of, and I feel that I need to explain how it should be used. The Exoskeleton only comes down to a Mirran Crusader or Squadron Hawks. Mirran Crusader kills quite easily with it, and it makes your Inkmoth Nexi that much better. But the best creature with it is Squadron Hawk; exoskeleton makes them each an Inkmoth Nexus. We don't need to be shifting exoskeleton around for defense like a sword, because it is likely you have a sword at that point. But now your better man-land has an entire deck of friends, rather than having to pick up the equipment itself.
I disagree with having two; this is not a card that you will be winning with often; it's the card that will steal you a win when normally you would lose. Therefore, this should be slow-rolled until you are set-up, than you proceed to win with Crusaders or you grind them with Squadron Hawks.
Glint Hawk fits the synergy of the deck, but he does not contribute to the tempo; in this deck, these are equally important, as we need to move at a defined and purposeful pace, using the synergy of our cards to match what will likely be the overall better card quality of the opponent.