Hey I_H8! I recently copied some of your deck but added a few more or maybe even a few less! Just wanted to give a shout out and thanks! It'd be greatly appreciated if you checked out my modified version of yours!

Updated the Deck, Wtih a few different cards. RIP perfect 50/50 Color Wheel lol. I think the deck is even a little cheeper? 0_0. Please guys, try it out :)

Testing The 18 lands 100 times, I got the land I needed 71 out of those 100 times. out of The 29 times I had to mulligan, 22/29 times I got the land I needed. Of the 7 times I had to mulligan again I got the land I needed 3/7 times. Out of the 4 times I had to mulligan again, I lucked out and got land every time, but I was limited to 4 cards opening. Best only to mulligan once. Also It really is just luck of the draw. I don't wanna continually flood myself, which happens in allot of games, but maybe when the next set of the Theros block comes out, I'll put in some W/U Scry lands.

Change side board. 3 Mizzium Skin , 3 Silence 3 Celestial Flare 3 Swan Song 3 Azorius Charm perfect against just about everything. Had trouble against rdw mizzium skin / azorius charm is the answer. Ready to rock tomorrow. Cut Bident of Thassa added 3 Ordeal of Thassa playing 2 Fabled Hero 2 Spear of Heliod 20 lands cut Elite Arcanist its cool tricks but too weak in a tournament but in casual multiplayer its fun. Thats all the news i got so far.

Dang i just test played your newer version and still managed to get flooded out 2/3 times. But for some reason when i actually play my version i get mana skrewed. Its hard to get two plains tur. 2 and an island turn 3. Earlier tonight i played against my friends sliver deck and some dimir devotion deck he made and i rocked his sox off. He sided all kinds of kill spells and i sided mizzium skin and between that and gods willing he was unable to kill a single creature. I can play fast against everything but controll or rdw when i want to make sure im able to cast a creature and protect it with gods willing, triton tactics or against controll by first attempting a silence to draw out a counterspell.

@Felixlives Did you look at the updated boards? The side board has the most control thus far for matches against control players. Celestial Flare I found was never used. Yes I can make someone sac something, however whats the point when I have an unblockable 6/6. Mizzium Skin can target and cause a single card to have heroic, but I have Gods Willing If I need more then Gods Willing I'll go with Brave the Elements . Silence is great too, I just choose Render Silent over it though.

Also Elite Arcanist is cut from my board already as well, (look at the update) :P.

Looking good M8!

I would suggest an additional Fabled Hero , maybe cut a one drop for it.

Hmm yeah Celestial Flare does seem like it can get cut. I mean i like the idea of getting rid of Chandra's Phoenix or Stormbreath Dragon with it but honestly im better off trying to gain life with an Azorius Charm and just racing for the win. Render Silent got cut from my sideboard because with as few lands as the deck plays and as aggressive as it needs to be i rarely can afford to dedicate that much mana to a counterspell. I need to be using all of my mana for some kind of creature protection combat tricks or playing out enchantments to get my guys fat and sassy. Maybe Brave the Elements could be good Mizzium Skin just seems so right. Protection is good against Anger of the Gods and Mizzium Mortars but i prefur the mizzium skin against azorius charm and every other target removal spell from blue/black Say you have a fatty fabled hero pumped with Aqueous Form and you put on some Ordeal of Thassa so they pop your dude with Voyage's End you save your guy from being bounced with either Gods Willing or Brave the Elements but you lose both your enchantments in the process. As creatures with protection cant be targeted by, dealt damage from, be blocked by, or enchanted by, the color they have protection from also i commonly only have one creature out anyway i wouldnt want to waste a chance to trigger heroic. Just some thoughts i am probably going to be keeping the deck the way it was as i feel it has plenty of tricks and Ethereal Armor +Aqueous Form +Fabled Hero =6/6 unblockable double striker. And any creature + 2 ethereal armor= huge threat for cheap.

I built this deck and I absolutely love it! I'm confused about Nivmagus Elemental ability... If you cast a spell, trigger heroic, then exile it, does heroic still trigger? Because it says the spell won't resolve.

If you cast a spell and it gets countered, the spell is still casted. So yes, Harperod, I think it still triggers heroic.

@Harperod

The trigger for heroic is "Whenever you cast a spell targeting (this creature)." This means that all you need to do is cast a spell which targets the creature. Once the spell is on the stack, it is considered cast and heroic will trigger. Whether or not the spell resolves is of no consequence. here's an example:

You cast Triton Tactics targeting Phalanx Leader and Favored Hoplite . Now Triton Tactics is on the stack. This triggers heroic on both the Phalanx Leader and Favored Hoplite , making the stack look like this:

Heroic Favored Hoplite
Heroic Phalanx Leader
Triton Tactics

Now you activate the Nivmagus Elemental ability and exile Triton Tactics for the activation cost, making the stack look like this:

Ability Nivmagus Elemental
Heroic Favored Hoplite
Heroic Phalanx Leader

Once everything resolves, the Nivmagus Elemental will receive two +1+1/counters from its ability, then Favored Hoplite will receive a +1/+1 counter from its heroic ability, and then each creature you control will receive a +1/+1 counter from the Phalanx Leader heroic ability. Triton Tactics was exiled and will thus not resolve.

Man that's a great combo, thanks for laying it out Skunk_Ape I will definitely throw some of those in there

I just got my butt handed to me at FNM and looking for a change from my green/white deck when i came across your deck, i actually have all the cards for it in my box. By the looks of your deck, i will be crediting you when i accept my free packs of cards at the prize table. I have one question, how does the Hidden strings work with the elemental? when you exile the card to put the cyper on does the hidden stings still get coded and you get the 2 1/1 tokens?

I'm not certain, but I strongly suspect that Hidden Strings has to resolve in order to use the cypher ability. I can't really think of a scenario where you would want to use Nivmagus Elemental to exile Hidden Strings anyway because Hidden Strings can potentially trigger two heroic abilities each time it is cast/copied. I suppose if Nivmagus Elemental is the only creature you have in play than you may want to do that.

Just got wooped at FNM. Went 1/3. first match was against maze end turbo fog the only match of the night i came out on top. Won the first game after being fogged several rounds second game he won cause i couldnt draw into anything to prevent fog round 3 i won with a swan song countering his druids deliverance. Second match i went against a verry well constructed black/blue divotion deck with a splash of white for sphinx rev and d sphere first round he won by removing all of my creatures and finished me with desecration demon round 2 i drew into decent protection tricks for my creatures but he sphinx rev to put himself out of kill range finally d sphered my 2 best attackers at once and finished me with a flood of elemental tokens from 2 master of waves. In the third match i muliganed to 6 had a good 6 card hand but never drew another mana second round i was hitting him hard and got him down to 6 life befor he killed my creatures with double anger of the gods. Last match i could have won but once again just got unlucky draws in the first round had gods willing when i needed mizzium skin and mizzium skin when i needed gods willing. Round 2 mana skrewed kept a three land hand but never drew a second plains. Seen lots of controll decks at my meta. Several games when to draw due to time out. Better luck next week.

@mikehickey84 & Skunk_Ape You can exile the copied card that is cast from exiled cipher. It still triggers heroic and it still gives you 2 counters on Nivmagus Elemental

@Felixlives I'm still not sure what exactly you are playing for your deck, Reference to Comment #3,4,7 . Is this relevant for this version of the deck?

I think i get it, so, you cast hidden stings, copy it to nivmagus with the cipher ablity. For example, when he attacks (and does damage) it procs the ability, then you can exile to proc for the counters. however, is the ability still ciphered to him so you can do that every round or does nivmagus loose the ablity to set off the stings when he attacks?

Your only exiling the copy of the ciphered spell with Nivmagus Elemental so it is still ciphered, and the targets are still valid from the copy when its still on the stack

@I_H8_U_M8I just wasn't clear on his question. I thought he was talking about exiling Hidden Strings when you first cast it, and not after it had already been cyphered..

Great deck by the way. I play it and love it.

OK, thank you for the explanation. I can't wait to try this deck out. And thank you skunk ape i had both questions, any you both answered them. I only started playing magic 3 weeks ago after a decade long hiatus so i am trying to bone up on the new rules with all the new cards and abilities.

The best part of coming back to the world of magic 10+ years later : I have a job unlike my 14 year old self and i can buy all the cards i want now!

Can't wait until i learn the 'new' world of magic and can share my deck ideas with you guys, until then, i will be crediting you guys and your deck ideas at FNM!

Skunk_Ape its no problem, I figured he was asking for just a general explanation of Hidden Strings , I'm glad you enjoy this deck :).

@mikehickey84 Good luck on fnm, Its good that there are more people getting into magic.

I_H8_U_M8my friend plays blue/black control with removal spells and a lot of cards that have an ability to mill my cards to the graveyard or exile. He can use any creature in my graveyard without manacost, and he can do direct damage based on the power of the creature in exiled pile. A lot of other synergistic combos as well.

how do i beat this?

Kosnimjc well I don't know what hes playing or if its even standard. How can you expect someone to answer such a vague question? You basically limited his deck to everything in blue or black that has mill or exile and control which you know, is only a few cards... -_-*

I_H8_U_M8haha sorry, yes it's standard.i have a few friend that play mtg very competitively and go to fnm weeklyi dont have the time on fridays to go to fnm unfortunatelyanyways, some of the cards he uses:Hero's Downfall , Ultimate Price , Thrill-Kill Assassin , Cremate , Wight of Precinct Six , Doom Blade , Duress

If you sided Brave the Elements Dispel Swan Song Azorius Charm your control would have been fine against those 3 kill spells, even if he had 4 of each Ultimate Price Hero's Downfall and Doom Blade . Could have sided out 4x Battlewise Hoplite 2x Artisan of Forms 2x Bioshift 1x Nivmagus Elemental 1x Triton Tactics . You also would of course have to change your playing style for that match, can't just throw shit onto the board without a counter or protection.