Okay, here's how I see it. We have a core for the deck that I doubt anyone would contest. Let's make sure our core looks good before we move along to our semi-decent & mediocre cards.

Core (36-37)

Creature (10)
2x Fluxcharger
1x Maze Glider
7x Nivix Cyclops
Instant (4)
1x Dragonshift
1x Punish the Enemy
2x Weapon Surge
Sorcery (6)
1x Flesh / Blood
5x Hidden Strings
Mana Sources (16-17)
1x Simic Guildgate
15-16x Assorted Land/Cluestones

This list leaves us 3-4 open slots for filler cards, but we have our core combo and defensive pieces, as well as our land base. (I will be adamant about having at least 16 mana sources, preferably 17. One of the only things this deck will lose to is inconsistency. Let's not do anything risky.)

In any case, does anybody object to this list? If everyone likes this core, then we can move along to discussions on filling up the last few slots.

I don't think anybody's gonna dispute that core.

Also, if the core looks good to you, Darkness1835, would you mind moving all of our other cards to the Sideboard/Maybeboard? Have to keep everything nice and organized or my mild OCD will start giving me uncontrollable twitches.

You can pretty much straight delete all the cards that we have exactly zero chance of playing.

Anything with White or Black can gogogo

Agree with all that above, especially cleaning up the decklist ;-)

I like Riot Piker over Murmuring Phantasm because we have 5x Hidden Strings to befuddle our opponents thinking they will have an easy block. That first strike may come in handy.

I think 16 mana sources is what we need, and I favour going all land over the cluestone - my concern is getting to 3 land drops. After that, the deck should start to roll. If our target operating mana was 4+ or we had a bigger splash, I like cluestones for the card draw in the late game.

I'll also say that we'll have skyclops untapped to block enough of the time due to hidden strings, not to mention Fluxcharger s hefty bottom. Phantasm seems to be the king of redundancy for us. Add Riot Piker to main please (and hey, it's another body for an overloaded Weapon Surge to benefit).

Well, see, I predict some contention on Riot Piker . I don't like it.

I'd rarely if ever want to drop it before turn 5.

Can't Drop it turn 2, or it'll suicide. Can't drop it turn 3-4, that's when we're playing meaty creatures. If we drop it turn 5, it only does something turn 6, and that's assuming they don't block it. I feel like we'd be better off using that slot for something else, like another instant/sorcery enabler. After fishbowling a number of games, we tend to win on turn 6-7 anyway, so the Piker doesn't speed us up or help with consistency in regards to instants/sorceries.

And as a reminder, if he's blocked, Cipher won't trigger. All in all, he does so little, is easily avoided, and he decreases our Instant/Sorcery count. I really don't like him.

Maybe we don't play Piker OR Phantasm in favor of an Uncovered Clues ?

I'm good with that plan Darkness1835. Clues isn't the best activator, but once you have 3 cyclopses out it's good enough for a swing and can set up a next-turn alpha if we hit with it. To be honest though usually when I cast it I get 1 hit and 3 misses, or 4 misses, which may be my bad luck or (more likely) statistically accurate for our deck.

Also, I think we've overlooked Runner's Bane . It's great control that we can throw down against a speedy deck before we have our cyclops wall. Fills the 2 slot, doesn't lose it's playability nearly as quickly, and taps down a blocker if we need it.

I say Phantasm so that way we have a meat stick to block Clear a Path

Mmmmmk. I see that reasoning. I think my absolute FAVORITE plan is to run 2x Uncovered Clues , but I've always been a high risk/reward player.

Also, can we plop some lands into the mainboard?

I'm lazy and just want to playtest on here instead of copy-pasting elsewhere.

@Prevailed if our opponent's have any sense, they wont use Clear a Path mainboarded, and if they have one and side it in against us, they'll know at that point what to use it on (a cyclops). If we just the phastasm, it should be to stall further, which I don't necessarily think we need.

Can each person's next comment contain their vote for Riot Piker vs Murmuring Phantasm ? Taking a vote for these kind of things is going to be the easiest way to decide.

+1 Phantasm for me

I'm on the defender train.

+1 Phantasm

+1 Riot Piker

With Hidden Strings he can be effective after turn 4 and lead a double-activation attack without using Weapon Surge

+1 Neither

I'm at work, I'll have a more detailed response after.

Would rather use Beetleform Mage as a grizzly bear in place of either. Even if we don't activate it he's a better more useful creature.

Given the choices, +1 Riot Piker

Remember that this is a slow format, so getting this guy out on turn 2 can actually mean some pretty meaty damage. I can see him getting in for 4 without too much effort. Murmuring Phantasm is straight-up a bad card. We're aggressive, and should stick to those roots.

The key to aggro is putting our opponents in an uncomfortable place early, and then applying constant pressure. Murmuring Phantasm does neither of those things.

We're currently at 38 definite mainboard cards, with 2 open slots. I move that we each vote for the two cards we want to see in those slots, and let the 2 best cards win.

I'm thinking
+1 Riot Piker
+1 Uncovered Clues

I would favor a second Uncovered Clues before I would consider running the Phantasm. It's just so mopey in our deck.

For me, it's pretty cut and dry. I like our sorceries. They're not getting nearly enough credit for what they can do, so here's my reasoning for why we should just stick with the maximum Skyclops route.

1x Give / Take - I actually really like Give. Those counters are an easy way to beef up one of our creatures, plus it triggers our cyclopses. Slapping Give onto a Fluxcharger is terrifying--that's either a 8/3 or a 3/8 flyer. Even if we have no green, we can cast Take solely for an emergency Cyclops trigger. Heck, we can even use it as a slightly worse Opportunity even if we stall out somehow. The only downside is that it requires green, but I'm not too worried about that.

2-3x Uncovered Clues - This is the other one that I really like, and that's because it's such a good turn 5 play. If we drop cyclopses on turns 3 & 4 (which is pretty easy to do), a turn 5 win is easy with Clues. By turn 5, we've drawn 12-13 cards. If we use this to dig 3 more cards, we're about 2/5 of the way through our deck--more importantly, that means we should have an average of two out of out five of our Hidden Strings in our hand. It was very, very consistent for me in testing.Sample Game
Turn 3: Nivix Cyclops Turn 4: Nivix Cyclops Turn 5: Uncovered Clues , dig for 3. Hidden Strings : Untap land. Hidden Strings : Tap 2 Blockers. Swing in for 20 with two 10/4 Cyclopses.

And here's my reasoning for cards that didn't make the cut in my eyes:

Beetleform Mage - A decent choice. Can be either offensive or defensive, and is a large, evasive body. However, it does nothing to contribute to our primary combo Skyclops plan, so I don't think it makes the cut.

Runner's Bane - Another semi-decent choice. However, it doesn't trigger cyclopses, and it's very situational. I see it being a dead card in hand--particularly when we have so many Hidden Strings to handle blockers anyway. Plus, it couldn't handle an opponent's bomb even if it tried to.

Maze Rusher - Two 6CMC creatures is one too many, and he's way too susceptible to chump blocks.

Murmuring Phantasm - We have a ridiculous number of creatures that act as walls. There is no reason why we would ever want to play this turn 2, only to follow it by 2-3 Cyclopses/Fluxcharger s the next few turns.

Riot Piker - Sure, he's part of a combo with Cipher spells. He's also insanely suicidal in this format. Weapon Surge should be plenty good enough for our combo purposes, and Surge is an instant speed combat trick and an enabler. Piker is none of those things, and I'd rather just have another Instant/Sorcery enabler in hand than having to rely on Piker to get though each turn with a Cipher or two. He's cute, but he's not good.

Wind Drake - A flying bear that dies to nearly every other flyer in the format? I'd only use him if we were desperate for evasive creatures. Our deck is full of evasion, so there's no point. Beetleform Mage is very nearly a strictly better version of this anyway, so I'd take the Mage before I took the drake.

What are your guys thoughts? Agree? Disagree?

I disagree with the Wind Drake bit. A 2/2 Flyer for 3 is always relevant, even if it's just to chop an opponent's bomb flyer. It may lose to other flyers in the format, but it also comes out harder and faster than those cards.

The thing about our deck, though, is that we're consistently swinging for over 20 somewhere between turns 5-7.

The Wind Drake do nothing to help our primary strategy, and they aren't aggressive at all. Additionally, until we hit 6 mana, each turn we have to decide between dropping a Drake and one of our other, much better, creatures. After we hit 6 mana, we should have a quality board state of Fluxchargers and Cyclopses, and we should be getting ready to combo off. It's also worth nothing that by turn 6-7, there isn't really a way that any opponent can put us that low after fighting past our wall of quality blockers.

Honestly, in any other draft deck, I'd be all over a 2/2 flyer for 3. However, in this deck, we just have so many better options to play that I genuinely don't think the Drakes are worthy of a slot.