commander swap
x3nodox, 6 years ago
switched yahenni and kothophed and switched out ivory crane netsuke for tainted strike
Sideboard Experiments
Sivadius, 6 years ago
I'm finding 4x Delirium Skeins might be too many, and so I'm dropping down to 3. This makes room for Never / Return since Planeswalkers are a real problem for the deck. I'd like to fit more in later. I've also taken out Death's Shadow. Although it has been good against burn, that's basically the only time I'm siding it in. Instead I'm going to try 2x copies of Waste Not.
Scrapped Idea
King_of_Sunhall, 6 years ago
I tried out a prototype of this, using what I had a couple of the cards I picked up in town and it was a very un-fun time. I was taking 27-minute turns from all of the crazy Wizard shenanigans as well as making everyone discard and draw (and scowl).
further optimizations
mookie990, 6 years ago
Making some additional changes, mostly focused on making the deck a bit more consistent and removing situational cards.
-Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim - I like the card, but I don't have nearly enough lifegain for her second ability to ever be relevant. The first ability is fine, but I strongly prefer sac outlets that don't cost mana - this deck doesn't have that much ramp, so being able to spend mana on things other than spells is a luxury.
-Oracle's Vault - as above. 2 mana at sorcery speed is a bit pricey for card draw, and it is rare to get more than three or so cards out of it.
-Twilight Drover - costs mana to make tokens. A very powerful token producer when it is active, but I've noticed myself actually having difficulty both having tokens and a way to kill them off.
-Batterskull - never really fit the theme of the deck. I'll probably try to find another home for it.
-Elspeth, Knight-Errant - my general heuristic is that planeswalkers won't live more than a single turn, and Elspeth isn't worth it if she only makes a single token.... and to be honest, even if she never dies and makes a single token every turn forever, that's pretty underwhelming too. The ult is great, but I want my cards to be a bit more consistent.
-Sorin, Lord of Innistrad - as above. Tokens are good, but planeswalkers are underwhelming if they don't stick around for long.
-Tymna the Weaver *f-etch* - great draw engine, but this deck is pretty bad at attacking. 1/1 spirits from Teysa are great at doing so, so may bring Tymna back if I can have them more consistently.
-Grand Abolisher - a bit win-more. Good for protection while comboing off, generally useless otherwise. Would be better if I were more all-in on combo, I suppose.
-Open the Armory - if this were Stoneforge Mystic, I would still run it. Unfortunately, it doesn't provide a body, which makes it much worse. It might still be running just as a second copy of Skullclamp, but...
-Swords to Plowshares - this deck has issues with card advantage. Swords is a fantastic card, but this isn't a control deck, and it's better for me to deal with problems by letting my opponents deal with them, or sweeping them away with a wrath or Grave Pact.
-Commander's Sphere - as ramp goes, it's a bit below the curve. One could argue for cutting a different mana rock instead, but I think the upside of being able to cycle is lower than the upside of my other mana rocks.
-Evolving Wilds - would be alright if I still had some of the 'if you have less lands than your opponents' cards that were in previous versions of this deck, but the only synergy I currently have is Sun Titan.
-Thespian's Stage - I don't have any lands worth copying, and the number of colorless lands I'm willing to play is limited. If only I were running Urborg + Coffers....
+Martyr's Cause - I'm generally of the opinion that enchantments are the sturdiest card type and the best sacrifice outlet. This deck has a severe problem with its sac outlets being killed off, so I'm hoping that this will be inoffensive enough to stick around. Being able to negate damage from large creatures with trample is also a significant upside (this deck sucks at blocking trample damage).
+Gilded Lotus
- one of the better mana rocks in the format. Tapping for colored mana is pretty relevant for this deck.
+Animate Dead - one of the best reanimation effects in the format. This deck isn't that focused on reanimator (most of the creatures are pretty small), but it can be brought back by Sun Titan, and hitting things from opponents' graveyards is also a huge upside.
+Leonin Relic-Warder - testing. It was recently brought to my attention that this combos with Animate Dead to produce infinite death triggers, and it's a reasonable enough card by itself that I don't mind including it.
+Black Market - testing. This deck isn't generally designed to work with large amounts of mana, so I don't know how well it will work, but the potential upside is high at least.
+Pitiless Plunderer - as with Black Market, producing mana from death triggers seems useful. Treasure is a bit more convenient to use as well, even if it only triggers off my own creatures.
+Mind's Eye - testing. It's a pretty solid card draw engine in a multiplayer format, and one mana per card hopefully shouldn't be too expensive.
+Sepulchral Primordial - testing. It's one of the best army-in-a-can creatures in the format, and being able to provide multiple bodies is certainly relevant.
+Bloodsoaked Champion - testing. This deck doesn't attack that often, but it really wants another creature that can bring itself back from the graveyard. I think the condition on this makes it weaker than Reassembling Skeleton, but being a human isn't irrelevant.
+Pawn of Ulamog - testing. Over time, I've come to the opinion that this deck's true strength is 'double-dipping' - the ability to benefit from sacrifice abilities multiple times from a single creature. Producing another body that can generate mana (and sacrifice itself if necessary) seems pretty good.
+Open the Graves - an enchantment that allows for triple-dipping alongside Teysa? Seems sweet.
+Temple of Silence - fixing is good.
+Buried Ruin - testing. I like the idea of being able to recur Skullclamp or a sac outlet, but grabbing back Expedition Map for Thawing Glaciers + Emeria is also a possibility.
Split
Doubledasher2254, 6 years ago
I’m gonna be honest, I’m not much of a fan of this deck anymore. It just feels too run of the mill and net deck-y (is that even a term?) while trying not to be. I built it with a cheap tempo, midrange deck using Confidant “Bob” as advantage and beating down with the vampire synergies that allowed even more advantage plus life juggling. This just feels like a weak devotion you can find everywhere. I’m thinking of taking this deck down then splitting it into two separate decks: that midrange, tempo deck I slowly been diverting from and a devotion, “play the best black cards” deck with my own flair on it. I’ll leave this up for a while until I figure out the skeleton’s (pun... skeletons are in black and these are both Mono blacks? Laugh peasants!!! Lol) to these two decks. Thank you so much retropman and YamshiTheWickedOne for all the help. I just recently got back into Magic after a few year break and it’s my first time getting into semi-competitive deck building. I have a ton of ideas for decks and everyone gets a few bad ones now and again, hell when GoR comes out I might make a deck for all the guilds using only cards from Ravnica blocks and Core Sets...
Improving the ultra-budget
ruy343, 6 years ago
Ramp
NicoEplulon, 6 years ago
i thought this deck could use some farseek like effects cuz im running 4 colors, so i put in farseek and a skyshrouds claim, because theycan hit the basics, and the lands with the basic land type, so it works pretty well
Massively change
atingtdm, 6 years ago
In / Out
Telling Time / Sorcerous Spyglass
Unwinding Clock / Palladium Myr
Thornbite Staff / Tezzeret the Seeker
Trying a mix of Compass and Prism
AffinitySchmaffinity, 6 years ago
Compass is extra cheap, and the life gain is surprisingly relevant at times, but Prism’s card draw is the kind of gas that fuels Affinity’s usual insanity. I’ll try a different combination of these two cards and see how it goes.
Proposed Changes
Shankmaster4k, 6 years ago
Remove: 1x All Is Dust 1x Banefire 1x Deep Analysis Add: 1x Fall of the Titans 1x Radiate 1x Primal Amulet
Modern Update
Spectreblade, 6 years ago
After putting off updating this deck for Modern after it rotated out of Standard until almost the next rotation, I've finally made some changes to it, most importantly adding Emrakul back in now that the deck's in a format where it isn't banned.
Removed:
Added:
Modern Update
Spectreblade, 6 years ago
After putting off updating this deck for Modern after it rotated out of Standard until almost the next rotation, I've made a lot of changes to this deck.
Removed:
3 Catalog
1 Plains
Added:
Update for Modern
Spectreblade, 6 years ago
After putting off updating this deck for Modern after it rotated out of Standard almost until the next rotation, I made a minor tweak to this deck.
Removed:
Added:
Update for Modern
Spectreblade, 6 years ago
After putting off updating this deck for Modern after it rotated out of Standard last year, I've finally gotten it done.
Removed:
Added:
Update for Modern
Spectreblade, 6 years ago
After putting off updating it for Modern after the last rotation to the point where the next one is coming soon, I've finally updated this deck with a few Modern cards.
Removed:
Added:
1 Gild
First Outs, First Ins
GingerSquatch93, 6 years ago
First Out Cards: -Artful Maneuver (I) -Dance of the Skywise (I) -Skywise Teachings (E) -Ojutai's Summons (S) -Belltoll Dragon (C) -Ojutai Interceptor (C) First In Cards: -Anguished Unmaking (I) -Utter End (I) -Rhystic Study (E) -Ponder (S) -Sunscorch Regent (C) -Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign (C)
Changes
GoblinsBeatElves, 6 years ago
The creature front of this deck got a major remake. Some cards were just too slow (Arahbo, Roar of the World) or a little underperforming (Jazal Goldmane). So, new, more aggressive, creatures came in to the deck, along with Dromoka's Command and Oath of Ajani for mass pump.
