Would Sun Titan be good for this deck? It is kind of slow, but you could drop a Sun Titan, nuke all the lands with Boom/Bust, and then use his ability to get all of yours back. Plus with Crucible, you could be getting 2 lands a turn (Sun plus regular land drop).
/facepalm...
Crucible does not give you a second land drop. Have you even read the card?
Ghostly Prison + Hokori, Dust Drinker basically shuts down half the format, right?
You might want to play some artifact mana to go along with that. Along with tron lands you should just win with Hokori out.
Zoo can no longer attack you regularly. 12 post can only untap one land per turn, etc. You're basically mono-white so you should probably run Martyr of Sands to ensure your lock down isn't too slow against zoo (or possibly pulse of the fields).
You can probably pull some silly shenanigans with academy ruins and any good artifact creature (Triskelion, Pentavus, etc.) to help with board control and eventually be a win condition while you just shut down everything your opponent does.
Trinisphere seems mostly like a sb card against combo rather than MD in this format. Chalice of the Void seems interesting, but I don't know if you have enough fast mana to shut any decks down fast enough.
The environment certainly has both the fattie firepower and the mana acceleration to make it work.
Too early to call it, but this one has money card potential.
I was thinking Dragonstorm (because if there is a solid enough citp ability, it will be better than random fat with this card than polymorph).
If only the red titan did more than 3 damage it would be awesome. Grave titan would be cool except you are super vulnerable to sweepers.
Gaea's Revenge is my current favourite. 8 almost unkillable hasty power (the only way to do it really is DoJ).
UG is pretty cool anyway when you can run garruk as alternate win/token generator and that new non-arcane kodama's reach so you can hardcast the dudes pretty easily too (easier than some of that eldrazi stuff).
Wow, so *** justifies itself. You even read anything anyone has posted? Is that what everyone has cited as, gee, the PROBLEM with White? Absent ***, the variants are arguable to even have existed; it's not entirely possible to prove but it's far more logical than White gets *** cause it always has.:rolleyes:
And every burn card is a bolt variant. It was too good so they dropped it. Just like Counterspell (Cancel anyone?). These past few years just fly by you? Ever wonder why every Wrath variant costs more than ***? Gee, why is Volcanic Hammer Sorcery and 1R? Did you read anything in this or the other thread?
Check out some Flores articles, he goes pretty in depth about why Counterspell at UU and Lightning Bolt at R define every card printed thereafter in those colors that do that effect. Then you can come back and wish *** a happy farewell come 10th edition.
And you entirely missed the whole artifact thing and why I bring it up. What do you think is harder, balancing something that only a color gets or balancing something that every color gets? Yeah, big duh. If we're supposed to trust those people to make the right decision, how come they screwed up so bad back to back with the SAME THING? I'm sure you may be the only one wondering why there is no equipment in TS.
and wrath in black will make every black mass removal spell worse in comparison.
you say that it doesn't belong in white because you can't make other white mass removal spells because they suck relative to wrath. The same will occur in black if damnation is a staple. You will never see another black sweeper be played because damnation is too good.
Also, if black is the colour of sweepers, then why are all the wrath variants white? it's damn well not just because wrath is white?
they can print disenchant in green, psi-blast in red, and make close reprints of tim in red, and many other cards in other colours. If WoTC really believed wrath was black, there would have been a very similar card some time ago. Im quite sure of that.
Also, "black is the colour of destruction". black is also the colour of selfishness and greed. They only want to destroy what isn't theirs, not just randomly kill everything. Thus things like extinction and engineered plague, and plague winds fit into the black part of the colour pie.
In Maro's articles about the philosophy of each colour he attributes black as having removal (calculated)... this is exactly what im getting at. Black is like blue, its decisions are made after carefully considering what is best for its own goals. Thus cards like terror and dark banishing make sense, black decides what creature (creatueres... hex anyone?, or engineered plague?) needs to die, and then methodically sets about killing those creatures.
He also says that black hates white because of it's disposition to create rules and order, and to impose these rules upon everyone. Cards like wrath of god perfectly show this aspect of white. It affects everyone, is completely indiscriminate and is not in the least bit selfish or self-motivated. After all, you are destroying everything of yours as well. White would see this as a minor annoyance, but justice must be served, and white will fulfill it's aims and enforce it's rules.
They -can- extend it to a certain extent and create a spell that also happens to hurt it's own creatures in the process (given the black mages willingness to sacrifice it's creatures and life to get what it wants) with infest, mutilate and barter in blood, which all depict some kind of plague (or similar, disease, whatever) to harm blacks enemies, but also some of it's own minions (again, a sacrifice the black mage is willing to make), but it is not flavourful to dstroy every creature.
Black can and should have sweepers, and i would be happy if mutilate was in 10th, but they won't replace *** in the core set with this card. White's equalitarian nature and strong sense of justice makes more sense for a complete purge than blacks selfish, malicious nature.
Why the *** hate? Many reasons, let's start this shall we? Apologies to moderators in advance if you feel this doesn't belong here but I will compare it to Damnation as well.
1. Design space. *** severely limits any type of creative design space for block mechanics, since all Wrath variants HAVE to be overcosted to incorporate any Block themes/mechanics. For instance, we never got to see this:
Odyssey Wrath 2WW
Sorcery
Destroy all creatures.
Threshold-Instead, destroy all creatures, artifacts and enchantments.
Why? Because then we WOULD have 8 wrath effects at CMC 4. Well, with Damnation now we do. But you all miss the important part; NOT IN ONE COLOR. Absent a Wrath in Core, we may have seen the above card. The above is NOT the same as Akroma's Vengeance at CMC 7, since Threshold can be achieved before turn 7 and this card can still be played to great effect on turn 4 (and turn 3 with accel). That is what great design is about. *** prevents that, no question.
2. Flavor. I can never be sold on a WHITE card in a color that is about balance, order, and amassing HUGE ARMIES OF CREATURES (weenies) that wipes all of that away. Cry symmetry effects all you want but it doesn't jive. Balance =/= symmetry, never has. Black is the ONLY color that has consistently shown to be indiscriminate in killing. The only reason *** exists is to keep a check on aggro and because it was a tradition. Guess what? Slavery, men only voting and a ton of other bad things were traditions at once. There is no logical reason why an appeal to "that's how we've always done it" should factor into this at all. That doesn't mean it's a good thing.
3. Power Creep. *** is the most efficient removal spell next to StP. The reason why toughness 4 is the new Toughness 2 is because of ***. When I drop a creature, it has to be grossly efficient nowadays. Over time, creatures have had to be so good (notice the prevalance of CMC 4 4/4's nowadays? And the recent WotC article that this will be the Green baseline to come?). If the black pinpoint removal was causing this, it would make sense but the removal came after. Sudden Death is a response to Hierarch if anything, not the other way around. When Terror came back, we all rejoiced because Black pinpoint was nowhere NEAR as efficient as white removal had been for awhile. Too bad it came in the wrong set.
And let's not get into the rampant ProB that White's been getting for quite some time now.
*** has stifled the game for a bit, it's unarguable. It's belonged in Black and I hope this is a 10th edition plant. Like my friend said, why else would they give away textless Wraths? Wrath sells the Core set (and now the painlands do); you don't give away what you can sell. Damnation would sell a core set like Wrath never has.
Love it. The new Standard.
your ONLY reason is because you don't think that a colour which is all about weenies should get ***?
first off, you are killing design space if you try and make white "all about amassing armies of creatures (weenies)".
black does not "indiscriminately" kill... how is terror, dark banishing, etc. "indiscriminate". They are all seriously elitist and very discriminate, in that they only allow the inflicting of harm upon others, showcasing blacks selfish nature.
Wrath is very efficient, but aggro is and always will be viable. You claim that power creep is causing creatures to become more efficient to hate wrath, yet damnation is our saviour? it's the same. damn. card. no power issues between them, but black gets (usually) the better spot removal (and other untargeted removal) to go along with it.
just because they now print 3/3's for 2 and 4/4's for 4, doesn't mean wrath has been too powerful. Sligh has been good forever, RDW dominated the previous extended, UG madness was good, WW was good only last season. Wrath was present in all these formats. 4/4's for 4 mana are not printed to make wrath less powerful. In actuality, printing more powerful creatures only makes wrath -more- powerful, by virtue of it being the most powerful sweeper in T2.
I agree with terror, but was smother really that bad? or vindicate or terminate (not mono-black, but still black) or even last gasp is quite good.
rather than printing condemn, they maybe should print better black spot removal, but not a black ***. It's iconically white, and makes more sense as an equalizer, than destroying all creatures in an elitist, egotistic natured colour such as black. Black is more similar to blue, which does carefully calculated things, only black cares less about the consequences of such actions, and is more ruthless in achieving it's own personal goals. Something like mutilate which hurts everyone (rather than destroys everything) seems black, as does Barter in Blood, which would exemplify black sacrificing it's creatures to deal with the opponents ones.
There is no flavour reason i have seen (anywhere, including your reasons in the other thread) which show why it should be in black. There are far more convincing arguments than you disliking the colour of "weenies" also getting mass removal for it to be in white than black.
But as for design... How? I can't think of a single way that Wrath of God is poor design. If it were really that terrible of design, Magic's well-qualified designers would have gotten rid of it a long time ago.
maro says in an article that Wrath of God is one of the best designed cards in the game.
and for anyone too lazy to read, i'll quote this paragraph:
"Finally, the card helps solve a flavor problem for white. White is the one color for equality. It doesn't like special treatment. It wants to make rules that everyone follows. It doesn't tend to push itself. So how do you get advantage when you're unwilling to give yourself a leg up? You find a way to turn equality into a weapon. Make it active and offensive. Wrath of God answers this call. Evening the playing field is quite aggressive when you're the one behind. Or you're the one that knew such an event was coming and planned ahead. Wrath of God gives the most defensive color some teeth."
Why should White get an efficient answer to it's ally's strength?
Ain, the Wit's End thing was a joke obviously. Abandon Hope is NOT White, sorry, seen NUMEROUS flavorful variants for Black that make sense, zero for White. No, Balance doesn't count. Again, you would have to break the symmetry as a player, the card doesn't inherently do it itself.
As for the artifact/enchantment thing, please dont' quote me out of context as I said that they were moving that away from White as far as artifacts go. If one color gets them both, yes, it's Green.
Seriously, why isn't the Red Decree White? There is WAY more justification for it as White then Red, same as how there is way more justification for *** to be Black than White. You can't argue flavor on one side then flop to mechanics on another. Mechanics, power, flavor, and design, Black ***>White ***. Yes, making everone zero is symmetry but it's poor design and it's tenuous justification. ALL of the White symmetry/balance effects are meant to set to an actual amount of something. It is intended, strategically, for you as a player to make that zero if you wish. It's obvious in the cards.
Rather than reiterate my already said points here, reference the thread in the rumor mill where me and Solace pointed out bit by bit the Black vs White justification or click on my profile and find all my posts. There are many listed cards there showing the argument is a little more one sided than one would initially think.
sorry, but you haven't actually showed how wrath fits in black.
that's right... it doesn't.
black is about selfishness and egotism. sacrificing others to get what it wants.
if you're selfish, you cast plague wind, rather than wrath of god. Wrath of god is equal on both players and not at all selfish. It is a complete opposite of what black hopes to achieve.
@whoever said wrath belongs in black and wizards are doing this to fix their mistakes... does this mean that muscle sliver belongs in white more than green, or that funeral charm is more fitting for U than for B.
the answer is no, same with ***... it's just done for the sake of having a good answer to troll ascetic in B. I would have rathered not have the black sweeper for the present not just be a perfect analogue to the white staple, but there it is...
1. The black one is part of the "colour-shifted" bunch. They know wrath isn't actually black, but it's there anyway for now.
2. Troll Ascetic. Black and White were the two colours that could deal with it (in an efficient, -good- manner) with wrath and barter in blood. Given that white doesn't get much in terms of untargeted removal that isn't expensive (besides wrath) i don't see them making a funtional reprint which has appeared in exactly one printing (whereas wrath has been in around 12-13 sets, and is -still- a money rare) such a staple card in T2 as the only really -good- answer to troll ascetic.
It really does make more sense in black (seriously, the only argument for it being in white is that white is the color of mass destruction; IE it contains Wrath :p), and I highly doubt that they'll let both stay in standard for two years. Just way too strong... no way an aggro deck could compete unless they start making untargatable 3/3's for one, or something. This is the set of crazy colors and crazy power; it's probably the only way they could justify having two of those cards in standard at once.
blacks flavour is about being selfish and doing everything in it's power to getting it's own way/achieving its own goals.
board sweepers are -not- part of black's philosophy. That would imply a sense of justice and equality. The second choice (for mine) for a wrath would be red, which is random and chaotic, and would indiscriminately kill everything more so than black would.
while black can sacrifice it's own creatures for an advantage, that doesn't seem to be the realm of the wrath of god. It's an obscenely white card and in no way makes more sense in black. Mutilate makes some sense in black, as does plague wind and barter in blood (imo, the most black feeling and iconic (in terms of how it fits in blacks flavour) spell that removes multiple creatures), but not ***.
Every time an Orb of Insight comes up, I do a quick check for reprints of my favourite cards of yesteryear:
Tradewind = 0
Impulse = 0
Brainstorm = 0
Boa = 2 (Somehow I suspect River Boa planeshifted to black, with islandwalk still [1 instance of islandwalk in the Orb].)
During today's FNM, my opponent played Sacred Mesa, which he tapped out for. So i thought he would have to sac it due to the fact that he does not have enough mana to create a pegasus token.
But instead, on his untap step, he untapped his lands and made 3 tokens, saying he can do that before his upkeep phase. So he sac'd 1 of his tokens. Then during his combat step he attacked with the other 2 pegasus tokens. The fnm judge at my local store said that its allowed because the creatures loses summoning sickness on the untap step.
I want to verify this rule, and i also want to know if he can play the Sacred Mesa's ability during his untap step.
Thanks in advance.
I must ask...
how did he tap out for mesa, and then make 3 tokens next turn (before he gets to even play a land)?
I must say that this deck performs just fine without the transforming sb, and i actually dislike it as you just end up as a bad control deck with lots of early drops and wraths...
I'm also running Icatian Javelineers rather than the martyrs and i've found the switch to be fantastic. The javelineers improve your matchups against alot of aggro decks and just eliminate threats like bob, soltari priest and other threats you can't deal with in combat, or want to remove on the opponents turn. It's also very useful in combat with regenerating knights in order to take out a hierarch or teferi that is blocking it (yes i've had players block with them without even holding 2 open to stop my knight regenerating... good times)
You still have to see the light then.
Try testing against aggro decks, and see if you like more that Court Hussar to answer their apes/lions/insects/whatever, or draw one more card..
If your meta is filled with Firemanes, Solar Flare, other Counterpost or U/W-R counter-control, then by all means run Compulsive as it gives you a bit more card advantage, but if you get into a tourney where you face 2-3 aggro decks with the Hussar they're pratically byes..
wrath, fetters, condemn and spell snare mean i don't want to waste more md spots on weaker card advantage to make a good matchup easier. I have tested with both, against alot of decks, and compulsive is -far- superior.
MTG17: at least 24 lands... you really should be running at least 25, and possibly even 26. This deck wants mana... alot of it, without having to run accel.
Replacing Tidings: not going to happen. It's not fantastic, but it is the best we've got.
Court Hussar vs. Compulsive... compulsive wins. I've been testing quite a bit recently, and this has been one of the cards i've been looking at. Compulsive wins because it's a more powerful digging tool.
Win Conditions. Knell is a better choice than it was a few weeks ago. Solar Flare dies to it if resolved. Meloku is still #1, followed by SSS, but knell is right up there now too.
Ghost Quarter. Ruining the mana base with it isn't really the issue, you can do just fine without the 8 g/x duals so many of you are attached to. It's simply not needed. I've felt the need to have it in my deck.
Lotus Bloom. no hope. we don't any mana accel now and we won't later. We don't care in the slightest about a turn 4 SSS, we care about controlling the game, and it gives us less slots to devote to that.
we can play terramorphic expanse as a 2-3 of, and only one basic forest though, saving life on duals and allowing for more UW sources. I really like the look of that in here, running 25-26 lands as we should be to ensure early drops.
/facepalm...
Crucible does not give you a second land drop. Have you even read the card?
You might want to play some artifact mana to go along with that. Along with tron lands you should just win with Hokori out.
Zoo can no longer attack you regularly. 12 post can only untap one land per turn, etc. You're basically mono-white so you should probably run Martyr of Sands to ensure your lock down isn't too slow against zoo (or possibly pulse of the fields).
You can probably pull some silly shenanigans with academy ruins and any good artifact creature (Triskelion, Pentavus, etc.) to help with board control and eventually be a win condition while you just shut down everything your opponent does.
Trinisphere seems mostly like a sb card against combo rather than MD in this format. Chalice of the Void seems interesting, but I don't know if you have enough fast mana to shut any decks down fast enough.
I was thinking Dragonstorm (because if there is a solid enough citp ability, it will be better than random fat with this card than polymorph).
If only the red titan did more than 3 damage it would be awesome. Grave titan would be cool except you are super vulnerable to sweepers.
Gaea's Revenge is my current favourite. 8 almost unkillable hasty power (the only way to do it really is DoJ).
UG is pretty cool anyway when you can run garruk as alternate win/token generator and that new non-arcane kodama's reach so you can hardcast the dudes pretty easily too (easier than some of that eldrazi stuff).
and wrath in black will make every black mass removal spell worse in comparison.
you say that it doesn't belong in white because you can't make other white mass removal spells because they suck relative to wrath. The same will occur in black if damnation is a staple. You will never see another black sweeper be played because damnation is too good.
Also, if black is the colour of sweepers, then why are all the wrath variants white? it's damn well not just because wrath is white?
they can print disenchant in green, psi-blast in red, and make close reprints of tim in red, and many other cards in other colours. If WoTC really believed wrath was black, there would have been a very similar card some time ago. Im quite sure of that.
Also, "black is the colour of destruction". black is also the colour of selfishness and greed. They only want to destroy what isn't theirs, not just randomly kill everything. Thus things like extinction and engineered plague, and plague winds fit into the black part of the colour pie.
In Maro's articles about the philosophy of each colour he attributes black as having removal (calculated)... this is exactly what im getting at. Black is like blue, its decisions are made after carefully considering what is best for its own goals. Thus cards like terror and dark banishing make sense, black decides what creature (creatueres... hex anyone?, or engineered plague?) needs to die, and then methodically sets about killing those creatures.
He also says that black hates white because of it's disposition to create rules and order, and to impose these rules upon everyone. Cards like wrath of god perfectly show this aspect of white. It affects everyone, is completely indiscriminate and is not in the least bit selfish or self-motivated. After all, you are destroying everything of yours as well. White would see this as a minor annoyance, but justice must be served, and white will fulfill it's aims and enforce it's rules.
They -can- extend it to a certain extent and create a spell that also happens to hurt it's own creatures in the process (given the black mages willingness to sacrifice it's creatures and life to get what it wants) with infest, mutilate and barter in blood, which all depict some kind of plague (or similar, disease, whatever) to harm blacks enemies, but also some of it's own minions (again, a sacrifice the black mage is willing to make), but it is not flavourful to dstroy every creature.
Black can and should have sweepers, and i would be happy if mutilate was in 10th, but they won't replace *** in the core set with this card. White's equalitarian nature and strong sense of justice makes more sense for a complete purge than blacks selfish, malicious nature.
your ONLY reason is because you don't think that a colour which is all about weenies should get ***?
first off, you are killing design space if you try and make white "all about amassing armies of creatures (weenies)".
black does not "indiscriminately" kill... how is terror, dark banishing, etc. "indiscriminate". They are all seriously elitist and very discriminate, in that they only allow the inflicting of harm upon others, showcasing blacks selfish nature.
Wrath is very efficient, but aggro is and always will be viable. You claim that power creep is causing creatures to become more efficient to hate wrath, yet damnation is our saviour? it's the same. damn. card. no power issues between them, but black gets (usually) the better spot removal (and other untargeted removal) to go along with it.
just because they now print 3/3's for 2 and 4/4's for 4, doesn't mean wrath has been too powerful. Sligh has been good forever, RDW dominated the previous extended, UG madness was good, WW was good only last season. Wrath was present in all these formats. 4/4's for 4 mana are not printed to make wrath less powerful. In actuality, printing more powerful creatures only makes wrath -more- powerful, by virtue of it being the most powerful sweeper in T2.
I agree with terror, but was smother really that bad? or vindicate or terminate (not mono-black, but still black) or even last gasp is quite good.
rather than printing condemn, they maybe should print better black spot removal, but not a black ***. It's iconically white, and makes more sense as an equalizer, than destroying all creatures in an elitist, egotistic natured colour such as black. Black is more similar to blue, which does carefully calculated things, only black cares less about the consequences of such actions, and is more ruthless in achieving it's own personal goals. Something like mutilate which hurts everyone (rather than destroys everything) seems black, as does Barter in Blood, which would exemplify black sacrificing it's creatures to deal with the opponents ones.
There is no flavour reason i have seen (anywhere, including your reasons in the other thread) which show why it should be in black. There are far more convincing arguments than you disliking the colour of "weenies" also getting mass removal for it to be in white than black.
maro says in an article that Wrath of God is one of the best designed cards in the game.
EDIT: The article is here: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/mr164
and for anyone too lazy to read, i'll quote this paragraph:
"Finally, the card helps solve a flavor problem for white. White is the one color for equality. It doesn't like special treatment. It wants to make rules that everyone follows. It doesn't tend to push itself. So how do you get advantage when you're unwilling to give yourself a leg up? You find a way to turn equality into a weapon. Make it active and offensive. Wrath of God answers this call. Evening the playing field is quite aggressive when you're the one behind. Or you're the one that knew such an event was coming and planned ahead. Wrath of God gives the most defensive color some teeth."
sorry, but you haven't actually showed how wrath fits in black.
that's right... it doesn't.
black is about selfishness and egotism. sacrificing others to get what it wants.
if you're selfish, you cast plague wind, rather than wrath of god. Wrath of god is equal on both players and not at all selfish. It is a complete opposite of what black hopes to achieve.
@whoever said wrath belongs in black and wizards are doing this to fix their mistakes... does this mean that muscle sliver belongs in white more than green, or that funeral charm is more fitting for U than for B.
the answer is no, same with ***... it's just done for the sake of having a good answer to troll ascetic in B. I would have rathered not have the black sweeper for the present not just be a perfect analogue to the white staple, but there it is...
1. The black one is part of the "colour-shifted" bunch. They know wrath isn't actually black, but it's there anyway for now.
2. Troll Ascetic. Black and White were the two colours that could deal with it (in an efficient, -good- manner) with wrath and barter in blood. Given that white doesn't get much in terms of untargeted removal that isn't expensive (besides wrath) i don't see them making a funtional reprint which has appeared in exactly one printing (whereas wrath has been in around 12-13 sets, and is -still- a money rare) such a staple card in T2 as the only really -good- answer to troll ascetic.
blacks flavour is about being selfish and doing everything in it's power to getting it's own way/achieving its own goals.
board sweepers are -not- part of black's philosophy. That would imply a sense of justice and equality. The second choice (for mine) for a wrath would be red, which is random and chaotic, and would indiscriminately kill everything more so than black would.
while black can sacrifice it's own creatures for an advantage, that doesn't seem to be the realm of the wrath of god. It's an obscenely white card and in no way makes more sense in black. Mutilate makes some sense in black, as does plague wind and barter in blood (imo, the most black feeling and iconic (in terms of how it fits in blacks flavour) spell that removes multiple creatures), but not ***.
the one islandwalk is pirate charm.
I must ask...
how did he tap out for mesa, and then make 3 tokens next turn (before he gets to even play a land)?
just wondering, as they cost 1W to make each...
I'm also running Icatian Javelineers rather than the martyrs and i've found the switch to be fantastic. The javelineers improve your matchups against alot of aggro decks and just eliminate threats like bob, soltari priest and other threats you can't deal with in combat, or want to remove on the opponents turn. It's also very useful in combat with regenerating knights in order to take out a hierarch or teferi that is blocking it (yes i've had players block with them without even holding 2 open to stop my knight regenerating... good times)
wrath, fetters, condemn and spell snare mean i don't want to waste more md spots on weaker card advantage to make a good matchup easier. I have tested with both, against alot of decks, and compulsive is -far- superior.
MTG17: at least 24 lands... you really should be running at least 25, and possibly even 26. This deck wants mana... alot of it, without having to run accel.
Replacing Tidings: not going to happen. It's not fantastic, but it is the best we've got.
Court Hussar vs. Compulsive... compulsive wins. I've been testing quite a bit recently, and this has been one of the cards i've been looking at. Compulsive wins because it's a more powerful digging tool.
Win Conditions. Knell is a better choice than it was a few weeks ago. Solar Flare dies to it if resolved. Meloku is still #1, followed by SSS, but knell is right up there now too.
Ghost Quarter. Ruining the mana base with it isn't really the issue, you can do just fine without the 8 g/x duals so many of you are attached to. It's simply not needed. I've felt the need to have it in my deck.
Lotus Bloom. no hope. we don't any mana accel now and we won't later. We don't care in the slightest about a turn 4 SSS, we care about controlling the game, and it gives us less slots to devote to that.
we can play terramorphic expanse as a 2-3 of, and only one basic forest though, saving life on duals and allowing for more UW sources. I really like the look of that in here, running 25-26 lands as we should be to ensure early drops.