MD Changes: -2 Kitchen Finks -1 Sword of Fire and Ice +1 Blade Splicer +1 Restoration Angel +1 Ethersworn Canonist SB Changes: -1 Mark of Asylum +1 Rest In Peace
Permalink
Doubling Season
Instead of Norn's Annex, I would be running propaganda, ghostly prison, and the norn's annex. Probably 3/3/2 or something like that. If you do that and have a leyline in play, the creatures can't hurt you, and the direct damage can't get you either. You probably want more than 1 leyline of sanctity in the deck. For the land base, The 5 alara tri-lands are the most versatile (Jungle Shrine, Seaside Citadel etc). The problem with the lands that tap for 2 is that they are useless if they're your first land. If you play it and it's the only land you control, the ability will make it bounce itself back to your hand. So you may have an opening hand with 3 or 4 of those lands in it, but thats just like having a hand with no lands. 1 or 2 mystical tutors could help this deck as well. I'm guessing you want to imprint the scepter with the counterspell or silence... the mystical tutor can put either of those cards in your hand when you need it. The 4 manabards does worry me as you do not have any life gain, which is why I assume you had all those lands that tap for 2 mana in the deck. Still, you have cards with big cmc, so if you have 2 manabarbs in play, it would deal 10 damage to you just to cast 1 painful quandary. If you're commited to it, then you need more artifacts making mana. I recommend manalith regardless because you have all colors. You need to test it out and see how it actually plays, and make sure you can establish board presence quick enough. You don't want them to have a field of stuff before you have your good shit in play.
For the blue mana, keep in mind the power of fetch lands. With misty rainforest and scalding tarn, I have 12 possible cards that can be blue mana when needed, plus the cobra can give me blue, and garruk can untap an island after I put blue in my pool, so 18 cards total. The 2 ruinblasters usually have a target, as even mono colored decks usually have nonbasics (Teetering peaks in red, Emeria in white, etc), and if I go first, I can drop a land, pass turn, have them do the same. Then on turn 2 I can either cobra or explore, then pass turn, then they're drop their second land. Then on my third turn, if they have a nonbasic I can kick the ruinblaster and leave them starting their 3rd turn with only 1 land while I will have potentially 5 mana available on my next turn. As for Garruk vs the Oracle: I used to run only oracles until I had 2 in play at the same time, and flipped 3 nonland cards in a row; I realized that they will only help me ramp sometimes, but Garruk always will (plus he comes into play and immediately gives me mana leak mana back). And I'm torn on the precursor golem because of the drawback, but he might have a place in this deck. Thanks for the input.
I would remove all 4 Hideous ends, both Perilous Myr, and 2 Galvanic blast to make it 60 cards. The hideous ends can go to sideoard if you feel the need, but they only really benefit a mono-black build of this, because with access to red you can kill pretty much whatever with the burn. Those 2 galvanic blasts wont be needed with 14 other sources of burn. And Perilous Myr is actually weaker than you think, as he must die to do his job since his attack power is a mere 1. Staggershock is also a good burn spell because you can get 2 counters off of it by the rebound. I would probably run 4 burst lightning, 4 lightning bolt, 2 or 3 staggershock and 2 or 3 volt charge. The weakness of volt charge is that the proliferate effect is only good if you already have 1 counter on your ascension when you hit them with it, as the first counter only comes in at the beginning of the end step. For crystal ball and tutelage, you need to see which performs better at getting you the pieces you need faster and probably fit a 3rd copy in. You may even find that one sucks and just replace it with the other one all together. The other cards I recommend are Lavaclaw reaches and Ember Hauler. Lavaclaw reaches can get the 2 damage in when your side of the board may not have anything else to do it with, as well as provides both color lands or a blocker when needed. Ember Hauler is good because he can swing 2 damage on your turn for a counter, then be flung at them on their turn for the 2nd counter. And remember, since red and black have trouble dealing with enchantments, RATCHET BOMBS IN THE SIDEBOARD :)
Pristine Talisman gets me to an odd life total, and with all the magnets and my other removal, gut shot would be pointless overall.
Thanks :) I actually never got to swing with him, but yea he's good for all the potential beats
It's interesting to not see any Overgrown Battlements in the build. One of Valakut's hardest matchups is aggro, and it seems that your smaller creatures you wouldn't want to use as blockers, and they can also blast your Treespeaker in response to you trying to level it which always sets ramping decks back drastically. Harrow is another card I'm surprised not to see, because 2 mountains at instant speed late game can be all you need to clench the victory.
Journey to Nowhere is always a better pick over Pacifism, because if they destroy the pacifism, the creature can swing on you, but if they destroy the journey to nowhere, the creature comes back from the exile zone and is summoning sick again. And you might want to squeeze in tainted strikes somewhere, because Instant speed infect catches people off-guard.
Well, I'm on my phone right now so bare with me if I overlook something, but I would agree with pure for the most part that discard doesn't really play a big part over the mill. There's a blue bird creature from scars that mills off of metalcraft, but you don't have enough artifacts currently to justify it. However, adding grindclock and possibly keening stone would be good fix that. Also, there's a blue card that makes ur creature unblockable for 1 mana which would make the sword beast (I think its from eldrazi). And you should add renegade doppleganger, because if you have him out, all you have to do is drop a crab, then drop a fetch and sac... 12 card mill. He'd also work with the allies. Also, you need some way to deal with your opponents creatures and sh*t, other than constantly throwing ur mill creatures in front of them, I would say mystifying maze and doom blade would be good creature control, and I would also use into the roil in case something needs to be bounced. Also, halimar depths is a must in any blue deck, and run 3 or 4 leylines in the sideboard... eldrazi will mess you up, and a 4/60 chance is twice as good as 2/60. And tome scour weak mill, I would go with preordain instead. And traumatize is weak because it usually comes out too late... possibly good as a 1-of though. Hope that was ensightful :P
Creeping Tarpit is a must; it is a gamewinner quite often due to the fact that it's unblockable; I would recommend at least 2. Also, I don't think the platinum angel is random, but you should definitely have something in there to fetch it on command such as Eye of Ugin. Also, I would add some Spreading Seas and Into the Roil as well, which is not only great to be able to bounce whatever crap your opponent has on the board, but I could see it coming in handy if they try to destroy the artifact your Phylactery counter is on by bouncing your own lich back to your hand. They will also both give you potential draw acceleration (Into the Roil if It's kicked).
Crystal Ball & Whispersilk are epic! The rest I could do without theoretically.
This deck could definitely use some removal; I would recommend Path to Exile/Oblivion RIng/Condemn, or all of the above. Student of Warfare is also good creature wise, and might be a good substitute for Serra Ascendant unless you're looking to make this mainly a life-gain deck which it seems you might be trying to gear it towards. If that's the case, Lone Missionary is a nice 2 mana creture that gives you 4 life, Basilisk Collar is a good equiptment to gain life (plus the deathtouch isn't bad either), and you would also want at least 1 or 2 more Serra Ascendants in there because they are totally beast when you hit 30 life. For the black side, Corrupt &Tendrils of Corruption are good for gaining life and doing damage. Hope that helps.
This was a booster draft: 3 packs get passed around the table from person to person, each person takes 1 card and passes it on, then after all the packs have been opened and passed, a deck is made on the spot from whatever cards you kept. *It's a 40 card minimum*