Bloodpeak Minotaur1RR
Creature - Minotaur Warrior
Whenever another creature you control attacks, put a +1/+1 counter on ~.
Whenever another creature you control with haste attacks, put a +1/+1 counter on ~.
~ has haste as long as you control a creature with haste.
1/1
I either 1-for-1 until revelade, or I do nothing until t4 supreme, then procede to 1-for-1 until they run out of gas, then procede to win with Aetherling, or sideboard wins to get around the pithing needle
Several points of note.
1) If we see more AEtherling, then we will have a hilarious choice when we board in the mirror: Do we board out our AEtherlings for Pithing Needles or for something else, like more cantrips to hit lands? He might also be boarding out his 'lings for Needles and as such your needles will be dead cards...
2) What Tibalt is saying here is what I've been trying to drill into the heads of half my LGS that thinks Esper is bad without Snaps. You can just 1-for-1 people, maybe 2-for-1 with Wraths, until you hit a Revelation. You don't need fancy card advantage tricks and 2-for-1s all day long.
3) I still don't know if there's a good reason NOT to run both Drownyard and AEtherling main. You need land in the deck anyway... If there is and I'm being stupid, explain for me why. Please.
4) Are people still running Jace, Memory Adept as a sideboard win-con? How are other people doing with it? It's been outstanding for me, but I want a few more data points.
You'd be suprised how much cash some people have in their house. Not everybody uses a bank.
Yep. A friend of mine sold a foil Russian Jace, the Mind Sculptor to a guy at the LGS who just drove home on a Sunday and got the cash for him from his mattress or wherever. Sold it for $4,500 right there, and the guy had the cash at home in $20s.
Does anyone else think these cards (which haven't gone up since being spoiled as not in MMA) have the potential to go up a bit, perhaps to the $5 range, during PTQ season, or is their current $3ish price tag reasonable?
That actually is a pretty sizable list. Obzedat, Varolz, and Falkenrath Aristocrat (and to a lesser extent Olivia and Nighthawk) are all HUGE threats. You also forgot to mention Boros Charm and Loleth Troll.
which has been performing well. See, the things that Doom Blade doesn't hit are all hit by Renounce the Guilds, so there's no point in playing bad cards in the deck.
Phyrric RitualRB
Sorcery
Suspend 2 -- 0
Add 1RB to your mana pool.
Whenever a counter is removed from ~ while it's suspended, ~ deals 8 damage to you and you discard a card.
This should be in either speculation or baseless spec.
As it stands, I think a Price reprint would push R/x aggro strategies over the top in Standard. They've already printed nonbasic hate in Standard, and I think its easier to just not give us as many duals (or as good ones) than it is to give us excellent manabases and pair them with hate.
Now the full spoiler is up, thoughts on what we benfit from in M14?
I feel like Life Bane Zombie is a strong side board option against a number of the popular G/W/X decks.
Doom blade is obviously incredibly efficent, but I don't know if I like it more than say Warped Physique...whenever I played a previous two mana destroy spell, there seemed to be an abundant number of blow outs with indestructible which Warped Physique ignores (and I've never ran into issues with cards in hand, though that not to say it won't happen).
Celestial Flare may be worth a look but I think Far//Away is definitely our preferred edict.
I also find silence funny against Blitz...turn two silence, turn three snapcaster silence, turn four or five verdict? :L Feels cute but I laughed.
Elite Arcanist feels fun but too much chance for a two for one, but I may give it a shot because recurssive counter spells is nice. Will require some testing but I don't think he is quite good enough.
Quicken is also probably a little cute....but instant speed verdict anyone? At worse it is 1 mana to cycle.
Seems like till Rotation we haven't got a whole lot, but after rotation will be a different story, heck esper may not get anything at all.
Here are my thoughts, if they're of interest to everyone: Lifebane Zombie has a good home (possibly in the maindeck) of decks that run Restoration Angel main. Otherwise, it's sideboard at best, and you have to consider the value of turning their removal (and every removal spell hits it) on. I guess its a 2-for-1 in the classical sense but when you consider the fact that removal is dead vs. you (virtual card advantage) its a 1-for-1 against a portion of the metagame. Doom Blade is much better than Warped Physique. Not even close. Celestial Flare is bad, and when we have a Plague Wind for 3UB in Standard, why not play it? Silence is an interesting choice for Snapcaster Mage builds, but I doubt it's good enough to warrant inclusion over cards that actually do things. Elite Arcanist is a creature that we care about on board. This is not a good thing. Quicken has replaced Think Twice in my build for three main reasons.
1) Instant speed Verdicts are a Good Thing (TM). The potential for a blowout is incredible, especially in testing vs. slower decks.
2) A 1CMC instant speed cantrip is borderline playable by itself.
3) I have foils somewhere and need justification to play them.
I control a Leonin Arbiter. If my opponent wanted to cast Scapeshift, would he have to pay 2 before the spell resolves? My understanding is that paying 2 is a special action (like laying a land) that you can take whenever you have priority.
If this is so, if he Scapeshifts at Comp REL, I say OK, he says "Sacrificing seven land" and then tries to pay two, what happens? Does he sac seven land but find himself unable to search? What if he picks up his library and tries to search?
Doomed Warleader3W
Creature - Human Soldier (R)
Whenever a creature you control dies with lethal damage marked on it, put a glory counter on ~.
When ~ dies, for each glory counter that was on it, put two 2/2 white Soldier creature tokens into play.
3/3
Thanks for the understanding on hatchling , perhaps I will try them again. But renounce the guilds has sat in my hands a lot or did not handle the issue I was using it for so I opted for a card that plagued better in my surrounding environment. I do agree with your points but I have seen renounce as a potentially poor main deck card recently so I made a change that hasn't been bad for me
Also, detention sphere sometimes gets two BTEs or something. Minor issue but still worth consideration.
It depends on what your definition of is is.
Creature - Minotaur Warrior
Whenever another creature you control attacks, put a +1/+1 counter on ~.
Whenever another creature you control with haste attacks, put a +1/+1 counter on ~.
~ has haste as long as you control a creature with haste.
1/1
IIW: 1/1s for aggro decks.
Several points of note.
1) If we see more AEtherling, then we will have a hilarious choice when we board in the mirror: Do we board out our AEtherlings for Pithing Needles or for something else, like more cantrips to hit lands? He might also be boarding out his 'lings for Needles and as such your needles will be dead cards...
2) What Tibalt is saying here is what I've been trying to drill into the heads of half my LGS that thinks Esper is bad without Snaps. You can just 1-for-1 people, maybe 2-for-1 with Wraths, until you hit a Revelation. You don't need fancy card advantage tricks and 2-for-1s all day long.
3) I still don't know if there's a good reason NOT to run both Drownyard and AEtherling main. You need land in the deck anyway... If there is and I'm being stupid, explain for me why. Please.
4) Are people still running Jace, Memory Adept as a sideboard win-con? How are other people doing with it? It's been outstanding for me, but I want a few more data points.
This got me thinking big-time. In my sigged list, do you guys think that those two Syncopates should be Dissipates?
Yep. A friend of mine sold a foil Russian Jace, the Mind Sculptor to a guy at the LGS who just drove home on a Sunday and got the cash for him from his mattress or wherever. Sold it for $4,500 right there, and the guy had the cash at home in $20s.
Here's my post-M14 list for reference:
4 Godless Shrine
4 Watery Grave
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Drowned Catacomb
3 Nephalia Drownyard
2 Isolated Chapel
1 Plains
1 Island
2 Jace, Architect of Thought
4 Think Twice
3 Far // Away
2 Augur of Bolas
2 Renounce the Guilds
4 Supreme Verdict
2 Terminus
4 Sphinx's Revelation
2 Dissipate
2 Essence Scatter
1 Aetherling
2 Terminus
2 Blood Baron of Vizkopa
2 Dissipate
2 Jace, Memory Adept
3 Crypt Incursion
3 Duress
which has been performing well. See, the things that Doom Blade doesn't hit are all hit by Renounce the Guilds, so there's no point in playing bad cards in the deck.
Sorcery
Suspend 2 -- 0
Add 1RB to your mana pool.
Whenever a counter is removed from ~ while it's suspended, ~ deals 8 damage to you and you discard a card.
IIW: Cards with drawbacks.
As it stands, I think a Price reprint would push R/x aggro strategies over the top in Standard. They've already printed nonbasic hate in Standard, and I think its easier to just not give us as many duals (or as good ones) than it is to give us excellent manabases and pair them with hate.
Here are my thoughts, if they're of interest to everyone:
Lifebane Zombie has a good home (possibly in the maindeck) of decks that run Restoration Angel main. Otherwise, it's sideboard at best, and you have to consider the value of turning their removal (and every removal spell hits it) on. I guess its a 2-for-1 in the classical sense but when you consider the fact that removal is dead vs. you (virtual card advantage) its a 1-for-1 against a portion of the metagame.
Doom Blade is much better than Warped Physique. Not even close.
Celestial Flare is bad, and when we have a Plague Wind for 3UB in Standard, why not play it?
Silence is an interesting choice for Snapcaster Mage builds, but I doubt it's good enough to warrant inclusion over cards that actually do things.
Elite Arcanist is a creature that we care about on board. This is not a good thing.
Quicken has replaced Think Twice in my build for three main reasons.
1) Instant speed Verdicts are a Good Thing (TM). The potential for a blowout is incredible, especially in testing vs. slower decks.
2) A 1CMC instant speed cantrip is borderline playable by itself.
3) I have foils somewhere and need justification to play them.
12 Esper Shocks
12 Esper Checks
3 Nephalia Drownyard
Planeswalkers (2):
2 Jace, Architect of Thought
Board Wipes (6):
4 Supreme Verdict
2 Terminus
Spot Removal (9):
4 Doom Blade
3 Far // Away
2 Oblivion Ring
4 Sphinx's Revelation
3 Azorius Charm
3 Augur of Bolas
2 Quicken
Creature (2):
2 Aetherling
Counterspells (2):
2 Syncopate
3 Crypt Incursion
3 Dissipate
3 Rest in Peace
2 Jace, Memory Adept
2 Blood Baron of Vizkopa
2 Renounce the Guilds
Flaming Shoal
Land
~ comes into play tapped if you control a land that can neither tap for blue nor red.
T: Add U or R to your mana pool.
Cycling UR
If this is so, if he Scapeshifts at Comp REL, I say OK, he says "Sacrificing seven land" and then tries to pay two, what happens? Does he sac seven land but find himself unable to search? What if he picks up his library and tries to search?
Doomed Warleader 3W
Creature - Human Soldier (R)
Whenever a creature you control dies with lethal damage marked on it, put a glory counter on ~.
When ~ dies, for each glory counter that was on it, put two 2/2 white Soldier creature tokens into play.
3/3
Also, detention sphere sometimes gets two BTEs or something. Minor issue but still worth consideration.
It makes your artifacts indestructible. So they can't be destroyed.