Pardon my asking -- why? There is essentially no discussion going on here, since there is almost nothing left to discuss with what's in standard. The deck is solved, completed, nothing more to add really. Disallowing the one thing that might generate discussion seems.....silly.
I'm going to do a magic trick and show you how easy it is to make this into a mono-blue staple. Ready?
Thassa's Mystic [S]Snake[/S] Merfolk - 2UU
Creature - Merfolk Snake
Flash
When Thassa's Mystic Snake enters the battlefield,
counter target spell unless its controller pays X,
where X is your devotion to blue.
2/2
Just make the damn thing add to your devotion, too. This is one of those rare instances where giving the spell legs (and doubling the cost) would NOT have been a downside. Really missed an opportunity for a sweet card here.
I'm guessing these are probably the prerelease promos?
Is it just me or is the blue one kind of insane? Not only is it card advantage (especially when combined with Scry) but it actually puts the card into play for FREE. That seems crazy.
The red one looks strong too, but the others are comparatively lacking IMO. I'm sure that'll change once more cards in the format are spoiled, but for now I am firmly planning on running blue in the prerelease again. Because, blue.
Is there any reason you don't run Extraplanar Lens/Gauntlet of Power/Caged Sun? I run a rampy/control Thassa deck as my main and those are the best cards by a lot. I run fewer creature than you do, but with those mana doublers I get to play much bigger creatures in general, which are great targets to make unblockable. Turn 4 Kozilek made unblockable on turn 5 is a huge game.
EDIT: Corrected the link in my signature to actually link to the decklist. (and yes, I DO play *that* card, we're a little overly competitive around here)
Also what do you all think about Invoke Prejudice? Art notwithstanding, it's a single non-creature card to turn on Thassa'a devotion on turn 4, and seems like an excellent control card against non-blue decks. Even against other blue decks, having such a strong devotion enabler seems like a great thing to have. Shame the price spiked recently, but I'm still considering trying to get one.
Oh man, that deck looks so sweet. I know it's never going to be as good or consistent as straight aggro but... oh man. I kind of really need to play it.
It reminds me a lot of the 'devotion to Boros' deck that's been floating around, except we get to cast Sphinx's Revelation off of our Nykthos, which seems like it'd be insane. We might not have that critical mass of creatures, but the spells will at least try to make up for it.
Is there another permanent-based removal option to make Nykthos even better? Obviously Claustrophobia and Sensory Deprivation leave a lot to be desired... Maindeck Domestications perhaps? Turns on Thassa, shores up weak matchups against aggro, seems like a perfect card.
I know it's not a great idea, but this deck is too sweet to listen to reason like that.
Honestly that does sound pretty enticing. Not having to run RH would be awesome (I really dislike the card) PLUS it gives us outs to Pack Rat, which seems to even more important each tournament I go to.
The worst part is, yeah, the loss of tempo from ETB Tapped lands. Having access the UW scryland will make that feel a lot less painful, since at the very least you're trading the tempo loss for card quality improvement. I'm not sure if I'd be comfortable splashing for Sphere right now since I'd have to run guildgates and would be limited to 8 sources, but being able to run 4 hallowed fountain, 4 scrylands, and 1-2 guildgates sounds way more reasonable.
...And being able to sideboard in Sphinx's Revelation against black or red devotion would probably win games. So, there's that.
It does everything the current monoblue package offers as well as more devotion.
No, not so much. We aren't worried about being reactive, we want to just dump dudes into play to interact with Thassa and Bident. A spot removal spell that offers a single devotion isn't all that great.
The splash is really just not something the deck needs. The deck doesn't have D-Sphere because the deck doesn't need D-Sphere.
EDIT: Just noticed which thread I am posting in, lol. So um, it's not the worst idea, but it still departs from the overall theme of the deck, which is on-curve aggro, so overall I don't think it would make the deck better.
If a RBx deck named Master of Waves against me, I would be ecstatic. He's a horrible card in the matchup anyways, since those decks always run roughly a billion spot removal cards. For you guys, he's a non-issue.
Name Thassa or Bident. You can't interact with them, and they are the cards that actually win me the game, since they're so much potential card advantage.
Went 3-2 last night in a smaller FNM, still made top 8 and got a few dollars thrown my way, so none too bad.
Round 1: Monoblack splashing green. Loss 1-2. Maindeck Golgari Charm just killed me so hard. Managed to scrape together a win game 2, then mulliganed/thoughtseized to oblivion in game 3. Green splash is tough, Charm and Abrupt Decay are great cards.
Round 2: Devotion to Boros. Win 2-0. Frostburn Weird, Tidebinder Mage, Jace, and Master of Waves were insane and led to easy wins, since their cards just interact so poorly against them.
Round 3: UW Devotion/Control Homebrew. Win 2-1. Wasn't expecting a deck to run both Thassa and Supreme Verdict, so he got me good game 1. Changed tactics for game 2-3 to make sure his Detention Sphere was only a 1-for-1, and rode Nightveil Specter and Bident to victory.
Round 4: GW Aggro. Win 2-0. Opponent mana screwed then flooded. Had maindeck Skylasher/Mistcutter so might be tricky, but otherwise we're just faster and can drown them in card advantage against their lack of removal. Selesnya Charm killed Thassa a few times, but Jace/Bident were as always killer.
Round 5: Jund Midrange. Loss 1-2. Maindecked gorram Golgari Charms. Jaysus. Game 1 was barely a win, then he sideboarded in eight more spot removal spells and Pithing Needles for Jace/Thassa/Mutavault. A total massacre.
Yeah very good points, just got from FNM and the Familiars were actually pretty great. I made it a point to see how well they impacted my opponent's spells, and they did a lot more work than I'd accounted for. In multiples, they were pretty silly.
Still interested in the idea of running the Sliver, though probably not 4 of. I wouldn't be opposed to trying a 3/1 split with Cloudfin Raptor, since the Sliver seems poor in multiples and has some upsides at times when Cloudfin is a bad draw.
Just something to talk about -- it's hard to experiment when the deck is so solid, but there's always room for experimentation. You just have to take some chances first.
This card seems really interesting to me. I've been thoroughly unimpressed by Judge's Familiar for a while, though that might be because I haven't played against many UWx decks locally. So in that sort of meta, how good of a replacement is Galerider Sliver? The upside of flying Mutavaults seems like a pretty great upside, versus sometimes countering a spell and otherwise being an unimpactful topdeck. At least if I topdeck Galerider, I can grant evasion to onboard dudes.
That seems really counterproductive. Sure you have the possible Cipher synergy, but it means you're running 4 copies of a creature that want you to play instants/sorceries, inside of a deck that maybe runs 6 of those spells, counting the 3 cipher spells you mentioned.
Cloudfin might be a little less (potentially) explosive, but it's consistent. All it wants you to do is run creatures, and we happen to have lots of those. And having evasion is super relevant, especially when we're trying to Bident the game away.
Consistency >>> Most things, when it comes to top-tier decks.
Dam we could have had underworld.dec and played such monstrosities as Underworld Connections and Underworld Cerberus.
Dammit wizards fix yo game, we could have had the BEST underworld deck this side of horrible scy-fy horrible movies.
Just seems like an odd rule, is all.
Just make the damn thing add to your devotion, too. This is one of those rare instances where giving the spell legs (and doubling the cost) would NOT have been a downside. Really missed an opportunity for a sweet card here.
How many black sources were you running? Did you feel like having all 4 Jaces was ideal versus having 2/2 Jace/Bident (or some other ratio)?
Is it just me or is the blue one kind of insane? Not only is it card advantage (especially when combined with Scry) but it actually puts the card into play for FREE. That seems crazy.
The red one looks strong too, but the others are comparatively lacking IMO. I'm sure that'll change once more cards in the format are spoiled, but for now I am firmly planning on running blue in the prerelease again. Because, blue.
Finally, spoilas!
EDIT: I'm guessing 'Vuela' = Flying? Interesting that all 4 nongreen ones are flying, and then green gets a bomby-looking hydra instead.
EDIT: Corrected the link in my signature to actually link to the decklist. (and yes, I DO play *that* card, we're a little overly competitive around here)
Also what do you all think about Invoke Prejudice? Art notwithstanding, it's a single non-creature card to turn on Thassa'a devotion on turn 4, and seems like an excellent control card against non-blue decks. Even against other blue decks, having such a strong devotion enabler seems like a great thing to have. Shame the price spiked recently, but I'm still considering trying to get one.
It reminds me a lot of the 'devotion to Boros' deck that's been floating around, except we get to cast Sphinx's Revelation off of our Nykthos, which seems like it'd be insane. We might not have that critical mass of creatures, but the spells will at least try to make up for it.
Is there another permanent-based removal option to make Nykthos even better? Obviously Claustrophobia and Sensory Deprivation leave a lot to be desired... Maindeck Domestications perhaps? Turns on Thassa, shores up weak matchups against aggro, seems like a perfect card.
I know it's not a great idea, but this deck is too sweet to listen to reason like that.
The worst part is, yeah, the loss of tempo from ETB Tapped lands. Having access the UW scryland will make that feel a lot less painful, since at the very least you're trading the tempo loss for card quality improvement. I'm not sure if I'd be comfortable splashing for Sphere right now since I'd have to run guildgates and would be limited to 8 sources, but being able to run 4 hallowed fountain, 4 scrylands, and 1-2 guildgates sounds way more reasonable.
...And being able to sideboard in Sphinx's Revelation against black or red devotion would probably win games. So, there's that.
No, not so much. We aren't worried about being reactive, we want to just dump dudes into play to interact with Thassa and Bident. A spot removal spell that offers a single devotion isn't all that great.
The splash is really just not something the deck needs. The deck doesn't have D-Sphere because the deck doesn't need D-Sphere.
EDIT: Just noticed which thread I am posting in, lol. So um, it's not the worst idea, but it still departs from the overall theme of the deck, which is on-curve aggro, so overall I don't think it would make the deck better.
If a RBx deck named Master of Waves against me, I would be ecstatic. He's a horrible card in the matchup anyways, since those decks always run roughly a billion spot removal cards. For you guys, he's a non-issue.
Name Thassa or Bident. You can't interact with them, and they are the cards that actually win me the game, since they're so much potential card advantage.
Round 1: Monoblack splashing green. Loss 1-2. Maindeck Golgari Charm just killed me so hard. Managed to scrape together a win game 2, then mulliganed/thoughtseized to oblivion in game 3. Green splash is tough, Charm and Abrupt Decay are great cards.
Round 2: Devotion to Boros. Win 2-0. Frostburn Weird, Tidebinder Mage, Jace, and Master of Waves were insane and led to easy wins, since their cards just interact so poorly against them.
Round 3: UW Devotion/Control Homebrew. Win 2-1. Wasn't expecting a deck to run both Thassa and Supreme Verdict, so he got me good game 1. Changed tactics for game 2-3 to make sure his Detention Sphere was only a 1-for-1, and rode Nightveil Specter and Bident to victory.
Round 4: GW Aggro. Win 2-0. Opponent mana screwed then flooded. Had maindeck Skylasher/Mistcutter so might be tricky, but otherwise we're just faster and can drown them in card advantage against their lack of removal. Selesnya Charm killed Thassa a few times, but Jace/Bident were as always killer.
Round 5: Jund Midrange. Loss 1-2. Maindecked gorram Golgari Charms. Jaysus. Game 1 was barely a win, then he sideboarded in eight more spot removal spells and Pithing Needles for Jace/Thassa/Mutavault. A total massacre.
Still interested in the idea of running the Sliver, though probably not 4 of. I wouldn't be opposed to trying a 3/1 split with Cloudfin Raptor, since the Sliver seems poor in multiples and has some upsides at times when Cloudfin is a bad draw.
Just something to talk about -- it's hard to experiment when the deck is so solid, but there's always room for experimentation. You just have to take some chances first.
This card seems really interesting to me. I've been thoroughly unimpressed by Judge's Familiar for a while, though that might be because I haven't played against many UWx decks locally. So in that sort of meta, how good of a replacement is Galerider Sliver? The upside of flying Mutavaults seems like a pretty great upside, versus sometimes countering a spell and otherwise being an unimpactful topdeck. At least if I topdeck Galerider, I can grant evasion to onboard dudes.
Just kind of musing -- what do you all think?
Cloudfin might be a little less (potentially) explosive, but it's consistent. All it wants you to do is run creatures, and we happen to have lots of those. And having evasion is super relevant, especially when we're trying to Bident the game away.
Consistency >>> Most things, when it comes to top-tier decks.