Where'd your cards go?
Modern
7 COMMENTS | 613 VIEWS
Nov. 26, 2012
Removed the Delver of Secrets Flip and added one Augur of Bolas and three Invisible Stalkers. mostly for unblockable Trepanation Blade action.
RichardStripus says... #2
Cutting 1 or 2 of the Jace, Memory Adept may be helpful. A play set is nice, but also think about when it isn't good to draw. In any given game, you shouldn't need to cast more than 2, and that is only if the first one is destroyed or exiled. Once you have a Jace out in play and working its abilities, every other in your library is just something else you could draw to advance the game.This deck doesn't have enough draw to compensate for that, even with Thought Scour , and I don't count Jace's big minus ability. You can screw your opponent with that at least, but beyond that drawing twenty cards is only good for you if you if you can deck them with what you don't end up discarding. Then there's the ordeal of drawing a Devastation Tide instead of a Cyclonic Rift and having to start all over again with him. So Jace's big ability, in this deck, is a nice end game move. Otherwise it can only hurt you, because at your present capacity to mill, you can guarantee the direct milling of 60 cards, not counting the crapshoot of Trepanation Blade or any return effects, and assuming you have the luck or opportunity to exhaust all of the deck's mill cards. And don't forget that an opponent drawing twenty makes them discard, but fetches cards for them too. Chronic Flooding is awesome, but the quantity here isn't really effective. Provided you even draw into one or both, I can probably carry on without that two land. If you're going to include them, especially in a mill deck I would think, I would put a play set in for maximum control. That way, you can place them at key times and lock someone out of a heavy casting at some point. They add up.
All that being said, the selected mill cards are wonderful choices, especially Dream Twist . I would incorporate Traumatize for rage-quitting success, unless you're going strictly for a Standard legal format (which it looks like, but may not be your intention).
The Talrand, Sky Summoner inclusion is good, and it just makes sense to have the card:Talrand's Invocation with him, but I'd watch that too. A big problem for blue is to balance out its own defense while aggressively milling to end the game. You can end up in a destructive loop where your instants and sorceries are only a means to poop out drakes,wasting their real abilities for the sake of hanging on. It might just be my personal opinion, but I think if you are going to make something that produces a lot of tokens, then the main condition of your deck is pointless, or at best a secondary strategy. If I can sift through for instants and sorceries to make drakes en masse then that's a much faster way to defeat someone then draining their library, and I would probly opt for spells that boosted the drakes or fostered further productuon. I feel this deck would be a lot more effective if more effort was put into synergy, or maybe committing to one strategy in order to fully utilize its strengths and account for its weaknesses.
November 24, 2012 7:32 p.m.
RichardStripus says... #4
Good call on the Increasing Confusion , and sticking to just Cyclonic Rift . Sands of Delirium ftw. I feel like this is a big improvement, and it will show when you play it. What I'd do now is just play it against as many of your friends and their decks as I could, and then tweak it from there. Good revision though. I could see this decking someone.
Another suggestion I'll submit to you really comes down to nitpicking. At some point in your adjustment I think those Delver of Secrets Flip you have will get cycled out for better utility creatures. A 3/2 flyer is nice, but you've already got a play set of what you can more easily make into 5/5 flyers for the same mana cost. They're nice for reinforcement, but eventually you're going to have to pit the advantage of the power/toughness against the disadvantage of revealing your next draw (and potentially next move) to obtain it. I mean, you could always just choose not to reveal the card and flip it (no one can argue with a 1/1 for 1), but I think you'll find something else eventually that will help you win the game better.
Nice deck!
November 25, 2012 4:56 p.m.
OptimusGeorge says... #5
Thanks! I was feeling the same way about the delvers, but I opted to let them stay for now... Testing time is here...
Vogie says... #1
I think you'd want more utility/defensive creatures to muck up the board. However, you look like you're going for a more balanced approach to milling than either a creature based strat (with Doorkeeper and more Trepanation Blade s) or Spell based (Increasing Confusion , drop the invocations, more cantrips like Inaction Injunction , follow up with Psychic Spiral ).
I'd increase the amount of mana, as if you get to the lategame you'll definitely want to be able to hardcast Devastation Tide or Overload Cyclonic Rift . If you do want to invest more on the creature-based side, I'd suggest pulling out the Tides so you don't have to worry about obliterating your tokens and recasting your blades.
Other cards you may consider are Dreadwaters , Curse of the Bloody Tome , Codex Shredder , Sands of Delirium , and additional Chronic Flooding s to assure you get one in the first couple turns
November 24, 2012 6:02 p.m.