Not sure if this has been mentioned but the spoiler flavor text is amazing <3
As for the card, it's really nothing that would've surprised us even if it had been printed a couple sets back. With removal as efficient as it it, Wizards can stand to print better creatures.
Either way, if the deck remains competitive or not, it's not like any of the cards in it are a bad investment.
The non-Sliver shell portion of the deck translates well into just about any other Aggro Control deck you might want to play. Force of Will, Daze, Swords, VariousFetches and Duals will always be useful in Legacy.
After you invest into those cards, none of the actual Slivers are very expensive... The most pricey is Crystalline Sliver and that can be found for under $5 with a bit of searching.
If you're looking for something fun to play, I don't see why this would be a bad deck at all. I gotta agree with WhoisTcmt and say the deck isn't dead just yet.
I'd seriously consider the -1 fetch +1 trop idea, following Volt's suggested manabase. Adding a trop gives you 50% more hard green sources, whereas it only takes away 12.5% of your fetches. If your opp ever finds out that he can hinder your Muscles/Harmonics/other green with only 2 Wastes/Sinkholes/Vindicates/Ports, it's going to be bad news. That said, popeye's doing the same thing, so maybe that never happens.
I'm basically doing -1 Tropical Island, +1 Misty Rainforest for budget issues while I build up the mana base.
I'm sure after I being acquiring my dual lands I might be more inclined to pick up a third Tropical Island
Again, that was something else I considered trying (Not sure why I forgot to place it on my list)
This deck does seem to have every means of taking advantage of Standstill and that could easily solve my problem of running out of cards too quickly after playing some creatures and a Force of Will
So I've been slowly building this over time and have come to the point where my maindeck is mostly completed (I'm lacking Stifle at the moment but I may be able to pick some up if they're even necessary anymore)
Of course my next project is to complete the mana base. I've picked up 4 Misty Rainforest and almost have my playset of Flooded Strand as well. Here's my proposed deck and mana base:
It's very basic but I wanted to get a solid start before trying other things and at the very least, I can always use the fetches and duals in other decks if I choose to abandon this one. I'm still unsure of what I'd like in the last 3 spots but some things I've considered are:
Also, I have Merfolk built so that I have something to run until this is done, but if I wanted to take this deck out for a spin, would it be possible to run off Fetches and Basics? Maybe with Wasteland or Back to Basics thrown in? I'd assume I would need to cut Daze due to a lower Island count, or maybe the deck just isn't meant to be run without the necessary lands.
No Springleaf Drum in your list? That card's good enough for Legacy builds to run.
T1: Artifact Land, Ornithopter, Springleaf Drum, Frogmite seems pretty good
No! Once you have access to blue mana, Evasive Action is always better here, and early in the game, you don't leave two mana open, anyway, becasue you're playing other spells.. Also, why do you think that you need ~that~ much card-draw and ~that~ much land-fetching?
Glad to get another opinion on that, I'm still unsure about which is better, but the "Pay 5 more" potential on Evasive Action sure is tempting.
The main reason for the high amount of card draw and mana fixing is for consistency. Since I'm not running duals of any kind (Would Unstable Frontier be worth a try?) my deck is highly dependent on spells to set up a full Domain.
My tabletop meta lacks any mass land destruction, so basically once I get setup, I'm good to go.
I don't think I have an excess of card draw... Etched Oracle doubles as a beater in addition to a pseudo Ancestral Recall and Allied Strategies is simply nuts even with only 4 basic lands.
What I mean is, if you have 5 allied color cards and 3 enemy color cards of each pair, you should use 5 allied color-fixing cards and 3 enemy color-fixing cards of each combination. Make sure the available fixing matches up to the available gold cards.
For example. Lets say you're using 5 WU cards and 3 UR cards. I would suggest that you balance the available fixing so you have 5 cards that add WU and 3 cards that add UR.
Got it, thanks for clearing that up. I've got the day off so I'll be fixing up the cube and posting my revisions either tonight or tomorrow.
On another note, I really like how active this forum is. It's good to see other people around willing to help out.
Thanks a ton, eidolon. You're spot on with your suggestions and pointed out multiple cards I've been looking at myself. I'll be making a good amount of changes soon. I appreciated the help.
And wtfwlf123, glad you think those changes will work well. Do I have much in the way of mana fixing that I'd cut though? I'm not sure how too much of it (outside the Bouncelands and Signets) is specifically geared towards the Enemy combinations, though I may just be misunderstanding your post.
As for now, I'll keep the Blade cycle in, but if they keep going at 15th picks, I'll cut them for better cards.
Most of eidolon's cards will be included soon enough, just gotta pull out the box today and start the culling =)
Seeing as how the CounterSliver shell is pretty tight as is, I'd like to see how you fit these into your list, if you wouldn't mind posting it =)
And if I'm mistaken and thinking of someone else's list, then my bad, I'm just going off a random thought I had
As for the card, it's really nothing that would've surprised us even if it had been printed a couple sets back. With removal as efficient as it it, Wizards can stand to print better creatures.
The non-Sliver shell portion of the deck translates well into just about any other Aggro Control deck you might want to play. Force of Will, Daze, Swords, Various Fetches and Duals will always be useful in Legacy.
After you invest into those cards, none of the actual Slivers are very expensive... The most pricey is Crystalline Sliver and that can be found for under $5 with a bit of searching.
If you're looking for something fun to play, I don't see why this would be a bad deck at all. I gotta agree with WhoisTcmt and say the deck isn't dead just yet.
I'm basically doing -1 Tropical Island, +1 Misty Rainforest for budget issues while I build up the mana base.
I'm sure after I being acquiring my dual lands I might be more inclined to pick up a third Tropical Island
This deck does seem to have every means of taking advantage of Standstill and that could easily solve my problem of running out of cards too quickly after playing some creatures and a Force of Will
Of course my next project is to complete the mana base. I've picked up 4 Misty Rainforest and almost have my playset of Flooded Strand as well. Here's my proposed deck and mana base:
4x Crystalline Sliver
4x Muscle Sliver
4x Sinew Sliver
4x Plated Sliver
3x Winged Sliver
Spells:
4x Force of Will
4x Daze
4x Swords to Plowshares
4x Brainstorm
3x OPEN SPOTS
4x AEther Vial
Lands:
4x Misty Rainforest
4x Flooded Strand
4x Tundra
2x Tropical Island
1x Island
1x Plains
2x Mutavault
Talon Sliver
Essence Sliver
Mirror Entity
Path to Exile
Standstill
Ponder
Counterspell
Living Wish
Any recommendations?
Also, I have Merfolk built so that I have something to run until this is done, but if I wanted to take this deck out for a spin, would it be possible to run off Fetches and Basics? Maybe with Wasteland or Back to Basics thrown in? I'd assume I would need to cut Daze due to a lower Island count, or maybe the deck just isn't meant to be run without the necessary lands.
Thanks for any help you guys can give me =)
T1: Artifact Land, Ornithopter, Springleaf Drum, Frogmite seems pretty good
My favorites of the bunch would be Miscalculation, Mana Leak and Memory Lapse, in that order
Glad to get another opinion on that, I'm still unsure about which is better, but the "Pay 5 more" potential on Evasive Action sure is tempting.
The main reason for the high amount of card draw and mana fixing is for consistency. Since I'm not running duals of any kind (Would Unstable Frontier be worth a try?) my deck is highly dependent on spells to set up a full Domain.
If I can't do that in a timely manner, then many of my spells simply become subpar versions of other cards, such as Tribal Flames to Incinerate and Collective Restraint to Propaganda.
My tabletop meta lacks any mass land destruction, so basically once I get setup, I'm good to go.
I don't think I have an excess of card draw... Etched Oracle doubles as a beater in addition to a pseudo Ancestral Recall and Allied Strategies is simply nuts even with only 4 basic lands.
-4 Evasive Action
+4 Mana Leak
Mana Leak is just way more dependable. Arcane Denial is worth a look for multiplayer though.
-1 Thornscape Battlemage
-1 Rakavolver
+2 Worldheart Phoenix
The Phoenix is a recurring finisher thats tough to get rid of. Battlemage and Rakavolver are good, but I don't wanna see them too early.
Thanks to everyone for your comments and help, its all appreciated =)
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Etched Oracle
3 Thornscape Battlemage
2 Rakavolver
2 Worldheart Phoenix
Spells
4 Kodama's Reach
4 Tribal Flames
4 Mana Leak
3 Allied Strategies
3 Exploding Borders
2 Global Ruin
2 Collective Restraint
1 Legacy Weapon
4 Terramorphic Expanse
7 Forest
4 Mountain
3 Island
2 Swamp
2 Plains
Evasive Action > Mana Leak, Miscalculation or Arcane Denial
I'd also like to fit in 1 or 2 copies of Worldheart Phoenix as finishers to supplement Rakavolver but I don't know what I'd cut.
Any suggestions are appreciated!! =)
I've been around a few places but am yet to find that game store or kitchen table to call home, so if you play in or around the Vegas area, hit me up!
Here's to hoping for some good games in the near future =)
Now if only I could find more players in the Las Vegas area...
Got it, thanks for clearing that up. I've got the day off so I'll be fixing up the cube and posting my revisions either tonight or tomorrow.
On another note, I really like how active this forum is. It's good to see other people around willing to help out.
And wtfwlf123, glad you think those changes will work well. Do I have much in the way of mana fixing that I'd cut though? I'm not sure how too much of it (outside the Bouncelands and Signets) is specifically geared towards the Enemy combinations, though I may just be misunderstanding your post.
As for now, I'll keep the Blade cycle in, but if they keep going at 15th picks, I'll cut them for better cards.
Most of eidolon's cards will be included soon enough, just gotta pull out the box today and start the culling =)