EthanLewis

Glad to see a familiar user comment on my deck again! Haha,

glad you like the design (: and now to offer my views on your concerns... :O

inkmoth was a card that at first, was just put in the deck for a chump blocker (if need be). But after testing, in a heavy control match, inkmoth is actually a solid threat. a 10 turn clock mightn seem like much, but in a control mirror, there are a lot of "draw-go"s, and 10 turns is actually not very many at all. especially when you have 2 out. (: sure, they can ghost quarter them, but there are 3 sun titans. and at worst, they block sworded dudes. I enjoy them, for my meta at least.

and visions was a card I was completely against playing at all. i didn't want it. it was a 1 mana draw 1 card, to me. and that didn't make the cut. until testing began. lategame it's amazing, and with snapcaster it's even moreeeeeeeee amazing. you have to hear me out on this.
think of all the people going to try and abuse that laboratory maniac. think of all the people going for reanimator. think of allll the late game control mirrors. think of all the mill decks. these are the new faces of standard (sadly...), and they make visions of beyond sooooo good. even in a control lategame, they're just pure value. I love the card, and the artwork is amazingggggg.

and yes I did see that deck, i commented, remember? :O it was really good! best deck I've seen from you in some time. :)

thanks for the comment/like, I really am glad you like it. (:

no i did not :O

and i gave up on modern. too silly for me. i'm sticking to legacy, standard, and limited. (:

Negate I think is a necessity! It wins the control mirror, and just hurts so many decks. I have 2 main 2 board, they're my favorite counterspell D:

memory's journey to me, is half weak. in uw at least, in green blue it is a really good suggestion. but when I have access to trinket mage, i'd just rather trinket mage, lol. andddd i have 1 bomb main, 1 board. which is access to 2 anyway :)

and sure, you can look at snapcaster costing 4 for a mana leak, or you can look at him as giving any instant/sorcery in your graveyard/deck flashback for the additional cost of 1B, and a 2/1 body... 4 mana for a counterspell and a dude is broken. just broken. and he can act as a day of judgment, too :O he's just so good.. i already have all my copies lol.

surgical is a realllly good idea though. i may tweak the sb to include it.

but also, what made squadron hawk so good, was once you drew one, you essentially drew them all. if stalker searched up all his bros, he'd be stupid good. people argue that squadron hawk was too good.. in white... can you imagine blue black getting squad hawk o.o ew

there's this nifty card called negate, it works. sorry bro.

and i had thought of that, but invisible stalker is overrated. yeah he's a pain to deal with, but on his own he's no real threat. he needs a sword, which are really vulnerable to a lot these days.
not saying it's bad, if it works out it's a pain, but like you said mirran crusader would be a much better choice.
the problem with geist is that he can't play defense... and in control that's really counter productive.

there's this new spectral procession card... midnight haunting i think? i think that card has a LOT of potential. 2 squad hawks for 3 mana, how nice. and it's an instant, :O

i can see spectral blade becoming big. but i feel invisible stalker will be more hype than fury.

/shoots you. Hahaha,

Well dismember is a card that's come up a lot in testing debate. Sometimes it's really good, but other times it hurts more than anything. V.s. aggro you side it out, because 1/5th of your life to kill their dude is almost helpful to them, and I'd much rather draw a timely reinforcement over a dismember v.s. aggro. V.s. control you also side it out because it doesn't hit titans, and while yes it kills phantasmal image, so does everything else. Were I not running 3 daj of judgments and 3 ghost quarters, I'd agree to up the count. But if i ever do realllllly need a 2nd dismember, I have 4 snapcasters (who also help with day of judgment, which I'll adress further down).

Moving onto the vision of beyond, me and my friend who test together had to consider the meta. What decks will be big?
Well, the fact that man lands rotating out nulls the need for dismember in excess (no colonnade), and the fact that this is a graveyard based set means that 20 cards in a graveyard will be easily achievable. with all these dredge-like schematics and tactics going into new decks, it's ancestral recall. Who doesn't love ancestral recall? :D Also v.s. control, lategame you can flash it back with... snapcaster mage (see a connection with why snapcaster is so good?). Early game it's a cantrip that I'm guaranteed to get lategame. 4 snapcasters + 3 phantasmal images copying either my or someone else's snapcasters) + 3 sun titan + counter magic = at least 1 snapcaster. Trust me.

And finally, onto snapcaster... this card is the best blue creature ever printed. But why? well, every instant or sorcery card in my deck is now however many of them there actually are +4. I can just flash them back (hence a few one-ofs a.k.a dismember). in a counter war he means everything. v.s. aggro he's a potential flash in chump block that recurs me w.e. I need. In a tight situation he's a 6 mana day of judgment. he's everything you want out of your creature, and that's value.
Yeah, you could argue that "well those cards need to actually be in the graveyard to flash them back", but if they're not in the graveyard to begin with, chances are I'll draw one very soon with 7 dig spells... which i can then recur with snapcaster (see my point?)

Snapcaster will be banned in modern, legacy, and possibly standard seeing how crazy things get. Trust me, he is broken good. Knowing how to use him makes all the difference.

I hope I answered your questions lol, if you have anymore just ask ^.^

Yes, it's 61 cards. Get over it. There's so much dig in this deck it's ridiculous.

ANDDDDDDDDDD;
Forbidden Lure = Forbidden alchemy
Calcite Snapper = Snapcaster Mage
Null rod = Stony Silence

If you want explanations on choices, ask away.

i enjoy this. well done.

someone using a good blue deck won't run foil, lol. they'll run force of will ;P

and no inkmoth? D:
...or mox opal or dispatch?

only 2 mentor? i would go 3 minmum.
also i think elite vanguard here is kinda weak. you're only running 3 swords, which are what really make puresteel scary (to me). i'd consider dropping elite all together

this is an old combo. the original used these artifact walls (i forget their names) and they came into play with X +1/+1 counters on them. so, you got all 8, and 4 disciple, and in magic x=0, so you just pay nothing for them, so they have no power/toughness. then, they all die and trigger disciple. BAM

p.s. it's only 32 damage D:

well if it's just casual then it's good xD

but still, on hero, isn't she extremely counter productive with timely? she makes dudes, when you want to have less than your opponent to make timely really go off.
i'd just go 4 hero of oxid <3 so good

only 4 fecth lands, 3 ad gear, and 7 dudes with landfall? o.o

this design is nice and all, but right off the bat, boros is land dependant. I wouldn't dare drop below 25 in boros, and that's running 13 fetches (1 evolving wilds).

and also, hero of bladehold is actually very, very weak in standard boros. I can only imagine how she does in modern..

I love boros, no doubt. but I think it's just too slow for modern :/

....deadly? lol

alright, so it just clued in that you have no 1 drops and all the removal spells that can target it, essentially, are 1 drops.

now I see the need, hahahaha sorry man,

why 4 Cotv? i know they're good, but I don't think you need 4. maybe i'm missing something, but I don't think they're even worth the maindeck slot, especially not as a 4 of.

i'd run some combination of both. one reason i loved dismember was because with all the metamorphs going around, if they copied an obliterator, that's it. it's a black artifact... can't doom blade or gftt it. dismember hits it, though ;P

Hahaha I do what I can.
And dismember is better than go for the throat for numerous reasons;
1. it requires only 1 "mana", not 2.
2. it can target pretty much anything, no restrictions.
3. it can be used with ANY color, it's beautiful hahaha

sure, 4 life might seem like a lot, but it's actually nothing in the long run of things. an opposing baneslayer angel could be swinging me down for 5 and gaining 5 a turn, or I could pay 4 life and end it then and there.
i love dismember. it's being called a mistake for a reason, and that reason is its insanely good. lol

and it is a long post, but meh, you always give me advice, so I decided I'd try my best to fill you in on standard atm :P

isn't gravitational shift anti-synergetic with said best t2 manland? :P
it's not really that important, just saying haha.

overall, really good deck. I don't really agree with 4 spell pierce, though. usually 2 pierce, 3 leak is good. maybe a negate or two? they're actually really swell.
Also, no day of judgement? :c I love day of judgment, oh my god. In my u/w i run 3 main, 1 board. And now with snapcaster mage I essentially run 6 main, lol. I HATE birthing pod, with a graveeeee passion. So i like to ensure i win against it (:

besides the no doj, the main is extremely solid, mainly the landbase. It's actually quite impressive, how you set up your landbase to be able to survive tec edge quite easily. well done.
p.s. no dismember? whatttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt. card's too good to not include, lol.

moving onto the sideboard, though, why 4 torpor orb? sure, they stop twin and opposing hawks, but that's about it... titan's initial smack down, sure, but that's not really stopping anything, just delaying. I don't feel they're necessary. You'd be better off with celestial purge and another spellskite, or a few ratchet bombs. twin will probably be a rough match for this deck, and dismember + purge makes it really easily. v.s. twin mana leaks are basically useless, where as the games go so late, so I actually board a few of them out. negate, as I mentioned previously, is really good in the current meta. maybe some sideboard? your call.

last fnm I beat a splintertwin deck, and man ever since then it scared the hell out of me. he won game 1, and by this time I was thinking "oh god, thats it, my perfect record ruined..", then just sideboaring out a few things gave me the edge.
tip; ALWAYS counter the shrine of piercing vision, ALWAYS. it's toooooo good for them, especially in the counter war o.o

but thats enough of my ranting, haha. overall, great deck man! i enjoy it a lot. (:

running 8 fetches with 18 lands means chances are you'll see very little land, lol.
i used to fiddle with tempered steel a bit, and hitting 4 mana is HARD in this deck. I think angelic destiny is far too slow, as ragged said. 4 mana is just far too expensive. :/