How have the Vivid lands been testing? They seem kind of slow to me.
vivid lands are a bit slow, but with 4 path, and 4 lightning bolt usually I can recover in time. Its the only way to make the mana base without lightning bolting yourself ever land.
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In life all we can do is try to make things better. Sitting lost in old ways and fearing change only makes us outdated and ignorant.
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
Albert Einstein
Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.
vivid lands are a bit slow, but with 4 path, and 4 lightning bolt usually I can recover in time. Its the only way to make the mana base without lightning bolting yourself ever land.
Fair enough.
I use fetches/duals myself, and while the life loss sucks (especially vs. RDW), it makes the deck a lot more consistent and you're able to answer stuff earlier. I also run the M10 duals, so I usually don't have to lose much life to get a consistent land base live. Ideally, I want to crack a fetch into a Ravnica dual on turn one, play an M10 dual on turn two, then either play a Reflecting Pool, another M10 dual, or a basic land on turn three. After turn four I just play what I need to. Works pretty well.
Why is nobody running this deck, especially the 4c and 5c versions, running Engineered Explosives? it seems insane to me that a pure board control deck with the ability to cast it for 4 or 5 would not play that card. I understand that Firespout/Slagstorm is better against zoo. Is that the only reason?
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"The smallest seed of regret can bloom into redemption."
Why is nobody running this deck, especially the 4c and 5c versions, running Engineered Explosives? it seems insane to me that a pure board control deck with the ability to cast it for 4 or 5 would not play that card. I understand that Firespout/Slagstorm is better against zoo. Is that the only reason?
because without academy ruins, and trinket mage it is bad for the format. The only deck I like it against is combo elves, but firespout is good there. If EE said x or less then I would love it, but it will likely just be a spot removal spell that cost 3-4 mana in 2 investments.
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In life all we can do is try to make things better. Sitting lost in old ways and fearing change only makes us outdated and ignorant.
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
Albert Einstein
Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.
So I had a thought during class today that 4 reflecting pool may be bad in a list without vivid lands. So I think that if you don't play vivid lands you should cut your reflecting pool count down and replace it with something. Im going to think about more later but I definitely think that less reflecting pools is better for the mana base.
So I had a thought during class today that 4 reflecting pool may be bad in a list without vivid lands. So I think that if you don't play vivid lands you should cut your reflecting pool count down and replace it with something. Im going to think about more later but I definitely think that less reflecting pools is better for the mana base.
if I was not running vivids I would not run reflecting pool whatsoever. It is actually a terrible card out side of rainbow mana bases.
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In life all we can do is try to make things better. Sitting lost in old ways and fearing change only makes us outdated and ignorant.
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
Albert Einstein
Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.
And you didn't voice this when you saw burstinatrix's mana base. Either you are lying to make yourself look better or you don't want this deck to progress. Please continue with what you think the manabase should look like.
And you didn't voice this when you saw burstinatrix's mana base. Either you are lying to make yourself look better or you don't want this deck to progress. Please continue with what you think the manabase should look like.
honestly I didn't notice his mana base because all of his cards were together instead of being spit up into land,creature, and other spells. IMO, without vivid lands your better off just going grixis. A fetch shock mana base hurts to much, and the use of too many basics with filters is also in consistent.
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In life all we can do is try to make things better. Sitting lost in old ways and fearing change only makes us outdated and ignorant.
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
Albert Einstein
Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.
your mana base needs a bit of work, and I would throw in 1-2 creature win conditions. also you need some mulldrifters or something to draw cards. preordain and spreading seas isn't going to get you to enough spells.
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In life all we can do is try to make things better. Sitting lost in old ways and fearing change only makes us outdated and ignorant.
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
Albert Einstein
Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.
Wow, I've Just Read through the past 15 pages and you guys have gotten me SO stoked for this deck.
I've been altering my deck with every page because you guys just keep providing amazing reasons for everything
This is the deck I've Finalized for the time being. Even though I havent Playtested it yet, (I'm Proxying it up first thing in the morning) I'd REALLY appreciate any input you guys had on the list. Also my mana base might be a tad wonky, I'm kinda disliking vivids at the moment (i'll try them later though)
- I have no idea on whether or not my meta will be aggro heavy or not so I figured the extra draw would be better for the time being
Damnation or Consume the meek
- Since I'm running the 3 Mystical Teachings package, I figure Consume would be better for the longest time. But I realized I was more scared of tarmagoyf and other high cmc friends that escaped Consume, so I'll try this for now.
Running only 1 of's for teferi, grave titan, and vendillion
- While I'm terribly scared of then being removed before I can use them, I figure I can counter anything trying to shoot them down, and take advantage of the fact that 2/3 can be fetched with Teachings
Throwing in Punishing + Groves
The groves didn't seem to harsh on my mana base so I had them in for a while, but I realized that it requires alot of mana to keep up the fire on their creatures. I've decided that, after playtesting, if it seems like there are several turns I have nothing profitable to do, I'll add it back in.
Ajani Vengeant
- I Love Vengeant, ALOT, so i'm very tempeted to try him out, since he seems like he might be able to do a few things (altho I admit he may not be optimal when versing a field of creatures or PkFire.....)
Chandra 3.0
- It seems very cute to have her replicate almost everything in the deck, but I'm wary about spending 5 mana to double bolt and then see her bite the dust.
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Standard:
:symw::symu: Delver
Legacy:
:symr::symb::symw: Stone-Blade
EDH:
:symr::symu::symb: Thraximundar
Norin the wary
:symr::symw: Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Relentless Rats.deck
I've got 2 big bad GT in the SB for if I think I'll need them in g2/3. Mana base seems to be working pretty well for me as of now but I am always up for making improvements, a lot of the modern land is in high demand right now and prices are sky rocketing.
honestly I didn't notice his mana base because all of his cards were together instead of being spit up into land,creature, and other spells. IMO, without vivid lands your better off just going grixis. A fetch shock mana base hurts to much, and the use of too many basics with filters is also in consistent.
So you posted a deck to the front page without knowing if it was even good? Yeah that will attract the masses.
So outside of losing the dice roll to bloodmoon.deck you think the deck is good...there is no way im going to play a deck like that and there is no way im playing spell pierce in a non aggressive blue deck to get around the blood moon.
3 islands is all the basics you need. I've been playing with fetchlands and shocks for forever it doesn't hurt nearly as much as you are acting like it does.
This is fine. I kinda like the fact that you built it to try and make g1 against 12 post manageable, but thoughtseize is going to lose you a ton of games against zoo in the mainboard. In my opinion losing game 1 to a combo deck when your deck is built to handle aggro is okay, because the entire sideboard is just pure combo hate.
I lost game 1 to scapeshift in extended all the time. When you board in like 10 cards for a match up they don't even recognize your deck anymore and the lesser players will derp all over the place because of it.
your mana base needs a bit of work, and I would throw in 1-2 creature win conditions. also you need some mulldrifters or something to draw cards. preordain and spreading seas isn't going to get you to enough spells.
This is simply not true. U/b in standard did really well against the kut with preordain and spreading seas and still had an excellent match up. Granted they had jace, but he was mostly for fatesealing in that match which isn't the same as drawing cards.
After playing a few more games I've never ran into a time where I wanted to pull GT into the main. I have more then enough alt-win via creeping and Vendillion Clique. I haven't run into a problem yet with my mana base, so I think it's gonna be fine for a tri-color deck. Great part is that the shock lands work really well with Dragonskull/Drowned.
What does everyone think of Blue Sun's Zenith as a repeatable card advantage engine? I've been playing with it for a week or so now and find that it helps me grind my opponent out, and also allows me to use my Esper Charms for something other than Instant-speed Divination (I like to use mine as aggressive discard, more than anything).
Also, this is my current list (along with a small write-up), for anyone interested:
Creatures: Mulldrifter is a fairly standard choice. Divination on a stick is nothing to scoff at, especially when the stick is a 2/2 flier. Not to mention that I can Evoke for cards in a pinch, adding some bonus synergy with Cruel Ultimatum.
Grave Titan is my finisher of choice. He ends the game in 2 swings, and even having him swing once creates enough board presence to potentially outlast your opponent. The bodies he leaves behind can serve as a nice beatdown swarm or as chump blockers, if necessary, and this slight resistance to Path is what made me choose him over Wurmcoil Engine as my main beatstick.
Removal:
I've found 6 1-mana removal spells to be sweet spot, and I obviously want to draw more Bolts early game than Paths, so I've maxed out on those and gone for only 2 Path to Exile (with another in the sideboard). 3 Firespout round out my mainboard removal package, serving as an absolute house against Zoo decks. Bolting a Nacatl turn 1 is a huge tempo swing, and wiping their board turn 3 with Spout is almost always a win.
Utility Spells:
Cryptic Command is a no-brainer, and deserves 4 slots in this deck regardless of build, I believe. The card is too good to not run, and UUU isn't as hard on the mana base as you'd think it would be.
Esper Charm serves as another utility spell. Whether it becomes Divination, Mind Rot, or Demystify, the point of this card is it's lack of a dead state at any point in the game (and at Instant speed!). With my card advantage package, I tend to use these as aggressive Mind Rots, which helps me improve my combo matchup, as they may be forced to discard crucial spells.
Preordain is a filter-engine. Stacking the deck from early to late game, bottoming extra Ultimatums or Titans when I already have the board on lock-down, etc. I believe it was Chapin that said "Drawing a land can be bad. Drawing a spell can be bad. Drawing Preordain is never bad."
Spreading Seas is a personal choice. I don't like the 12-post matchup preboard, so I wanted to try and fix it up a little bit with some mainboard land-destruction. Fulminator Mage, while good, could prove less than useful, so I turned to my trust set of cantripping Seas. I must admit, I have a slight fetish for cantrips. :3
Card Advantage:
Cruel Ultimatum is the namesake of the deck. Run 3, resolve one, win the game.
Blue Sun's Zenith is my repeatable CA engine. Shuffling back into my library is huge, and it also effectively makes me immune to mill, since I can always cast it for 0 and shuffle it back in. That being said, the Instant speed is what really drew me to this over Mind Spring, despite the shuffle effect. I wanted a scalable, repeatable card advantage engine (RIP Jace) to help propel myself into the late game, and it has one me multiple games as I buried my opponent in CA on the end of their turn, untapped, and promptly cast Ultimatum. The card wins games, I'm telling you.
Sideboard:
Fulminator Mage is my second 4-of land destruction spell for the Cloudpost matchup. His sacrifice effect makes him synergize with Ultimatum incredibly well, and the ultimate goal in this matchup is to lock them off of Cloudpost ramp. Once that is done, the game is essentially won.
Thoughtseize and Vendilion Clique are my anti-combo cards (and also come in against 12-post). Ripping key spells from their hand seems like a good gameplan against combo decks, and it really allows me to save Cryptics for must-counter spells. They have a Melira and a Finks but no sac outlet? Save it for the outlet. Twin and no Exarch? Keep Path mana up for when they finally do play the little bugger. etc. Information is your most potent weapon against combo, and these cards do it better than any others.
Maelstrom Pulse is my catch-all removal spell, and doubles as a board wipe against token decks (should those exist). If I feel like the 4 Bolt, 3 Path, 3 Spout isn't enough, I'll side these guys in for good measure. Or, if I'm up against Pyromancer or some artifact-based deck, Pulse comes doubly in handy.
Damnation and Path to Exile are my anti-aggro sideboard measures. Path almost always comes in, Damnation is more of a tool against mid-range. I will side it in if I am particularly having trouble with large Goyfs, but I don't worry too much otherwise.
Identity Crisis and Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir are my cards for the control mirrors. Both are absolutely game-breaking. Crisis is huge amounts of card advantage (especially against any Sun Titan based decks), while Teferi forces them to use counter magic on their turn, while I can tap out for threats on their turn and play draw-go the rest of the game.
What does everyone think of Blue Sun's Zenith as a repeatable card advantage engine? I've been playing with it for a week or so now and find that it helps me grind my opponent out, and also allows me to use my Esper Charms for something other than Instant-speed Divination (I like to use mine as aggressive discard, more than anything).
Also, this is my current list (along with a small write-up), for anyone interested:
Creatures: Mulldrifter is a fairly standard choice. Divination on a stick is nothing to scoff at, especially when the stick is a 2/2 flier. Not to mention that I can Evoke for cards in a pinch, adding some bonus synergy with Cruel Ultimatum.
Grave Titan is my finisher of choice. He ends the game in 2 swings, and even having him swing once creates enough board presence to potentially outlast your opponent. The bodies he leaves behind can serve as a nice beatdown swarm or as chump blockers, if necessary, and this slight resistance to Path is what made me choose him over Wurmcoil Engine as my main beatstick.
Removal:
I've found 6 1-mana removal spells to be sweet spot, and I obviously want to draw more Bolts early game than Paths, so I've maxed out on those and gone for only 2 Path to Exile (with another in the sideboard). 3 Firespout round out my mainboard removal package, serving as an absolute house against Zoo decks. Bolting a Nacatl turn 1 is a huge tempo swing, and wiping their board turn 3 with Spout is almost always a win.
Utility Spells:
Cryptic Command is a no-brainer, and deserves 4 slots in this deck regardless of build, I believe. The card is too good to not run, and UUU isn't as hard on the mana base as you'd think it would be.
Esper Charm serves as another utility spell. Whether it becomes Divination, Mind Rot, or Demystify, the point of this card is it's lack of a dead state at any point in the game (and at Instant speed!). With my card advantage package, I tend to use these as aggressive Mind Rots, which helps me improve my combo matchup, as they may be forced to discard crucial spells.
Preordain is a filter-engine. Stacking the deck from early to late game, bottoming extra Ultimatums or Titans when I already have the board on lock-down, etc. I believe it was Chapin that said "Drawing a land can be bad. Drawing a spell can be bad. Drawing Preordain is never bad."
Spreading Seas is a personal choice. I don't like the 12-post matchup preboard, so I wanted to try and fix it up a little bit with some mainboard land-destruction. Fulminator Mage, while good, could prove less than useful, so I turned to my trust set of cantripping Seas. I must admit, I have a slight fetish for cantrips. :3
Card Advantage:
Cruel Ultimatum is the namesake of the deck. Run 3, resolve one, win the game.
Blue Sun's Zenith is my repeatable CA engine. Shuffling back into my library is huge, and it also effectively makes me immune to mill, since I can always cast it for 0 and shuffle it back in. That being said, the Instant speed is what really drew me to this over Mind Spring, despite the shuffle effect. I wanted a scalable, repeatable card advantage engine (RIP Jace) to help propel myself into the late game, and it has one me multiple games as I buried my opponent in CA on the end of their turn, untapped, and promptly cast Ultimatum. The card wins games, I'm telling you.
Sideboard:
Fulminator Mage is my second 4-of land destruction spell for the Cloudpost matchup. His sacrifice effect makes him synergize with Ultimatum incredibly well, and the ultimate goal in this matchup is to lock them off of Cloudpost ramp. Once that is done, the game is essentially won.
Thoughtseize and Vendilion Clique are my anti-combo cards (and also come in against 12-post). Ripping key spells from their hand seems like a good gameplan against combo decks, and it really allows me to save Cryptics for must-counter spells. They have a Melira and a Finks but no sac outlet? Save it for the outlet. Twin and no Exarch? Keep Path mana up for when they finally do play the little bugger. etc. Information is your most potent weapon against combo, and these cards do it better than any others.
Maelstrom Pulse is my catch-all removal spell, and doubles as a board wipe against token decks (should those exist). If I feel like the 4 Bolt, 3 Path, 3 Spout isn't enough, I'll side these guys in for good measure. Or, if I'm up against Pyromancer or some artifact-based deck, Pulse comes doubly in handy.
Damnation and Path to Exile are my anti-aggro sideboard measures. Path almost always comes in, Damnation is more of a tool against mid-range. I will side it in if I am particularly having trouble with large Goyfs, but I don't worry too much otherwise.
Identity Crisis and Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir are my cards for the control mirrors. Both are absolutely game-breaking. Crisis is huge amounts of card advantage (especially against any Sun Titan based decks), while Teferi forces them to use counter magic on their turn, while I can tap out for threats on their turn and play draw-go the rest of the game.
Thoughts are appreciated, as always.
I would try to cut 1-2 filter lands for something else. They are incredibly in consistent, and a hand with two of them is usually an auto mulligan.
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In life all we can do is try to make things better. Sitting lost in old ways and fearing change only makes us outdated and ignorant.
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
Albert Einstein
Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.
Thomas Jefferson
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I already run four Cryptic Command.
Thanks to Nezumi for the banner!
Oh, gotcha.
How have the Vivid lands been testing? They seem kind of slow to me.
Thanks to Nezumi for the banner!
vivid lands are a bit slow, but with 4 path, and 4 lightning bolt usually I can recover in time. Its the only way to make the mana base without lightning bolting yourself ever land.
Albert Einstein
Thomas Jefferson
Fair enough.
I use fetches/duals myself, and while the life loss sucks (especially vs. RDW), it makes the deck a lot more consistent and you're able to answer stuff earlier. I also run the M10 duals, so I usually don't have to lose much life to get a consistent land base live. Ideally, I want to crack a fetch into a Ravnica dual on turn one, play an M10 dual on turn two, then either play a Reflecting Pool, another M10 dual, or a basic land on turn three. After turn four I just play what I need to. Works pretty well.
Thanks to Nezumi for the banner!
Vivid lands are way more reliable, but the come into play **** is really bad in a format with turn 2 blood moon all over the place.
UBANTBU
UBRWDDFTWRBU
WUBRGT.E.S.GRBUW
because without academy ruins, and trinket mage it is bad for the format. The only deck I like it against is combo elves, but firespout is good there. If EE said x or less then I would love it, but it will likely just be a spot removal spell that cost 3-4 mana in 2 investments.
Albert Einstein
Thomas Jefferson
if I was not running vivids I would not run reflecting pool whatsoever. It is actually a terrible card out side of rainbow mana bases.
Albert Einstein
Thomas Jefferson
honestly I didn't notice his mana base because all of his cards were together instead of being spit up into land,creature, and other spells. IMO, without vivid lands your better off just going grixis. A fetch shock mana base hurts to much, and the use of too many basics with filters is also in consistent.
Albert Einstein
Thomas Jefferson
3 Vendilion Clique
Instant
3 Lightning Bolt
4 Terminate
4 Cryptic Command
Sorcery
3 Cruel Ultimatum
4 Thoughtseize
4 Preordain
4 Blightning
2 Damnation
3 Spreading Seas
Land
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Creeping Tar Pit
4 Crumbling Necropolis
2 Steam Vents
2 Watery Grave
3 Dragonskull Summit
3 Drowned Catacomb
2 Mountain
2 Island
1 Jace Beleren
3 Remand
2 Double Negative
2 Grave Titan
3 Thought Hemorrhage
1 Spreading Seas
1 Relic of Progenitus
2 Damnation
your mana base needs a bit of work, and I would throw in 1-2 creature win conditions. also you need some mulldrifters or something to draw cards. preordain and spreading seas isn't going to get you to enough spells.
Albert Einstein
Thomas Jefferson
I've been altering my deck with every page because you guys just keep providing amazing reasons for everything
This is the deck I've Finalized for the time being. Even though I havent Playtested it yet, (I'm Proxying it up first thing in the morning) I'd REALLY appreciate any input you guys had on the list. Also my mana base might be a tad wonky, I'm kinda disliking vivids at the moment (i'll try them later though)
Here it is:
1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
1 Grave Titan
1 Vendillion Clique
2 Mulldrifter
Spells - 29
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Path to Exile
4 Rune Snag
4 Esper Charm
4 Cryptic Command
3 Mystical Teachings
2 Firespout
2 Cruel Ultimatum
1 Ajani Vengeant
1 Damnation
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Marsh Flats
2 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Steam Vents
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Watery Grave
2 Sunken Ruins
1 Mystic Gate
4 Reflecting Pool
3 Island
1 Mountain
1 Swamp
4 Mindbreak Trap
4 Fulminator Mage
2 Bribery
1 Logic Knot
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Sadistic Sacrament
Things I'm on the fence about
Mull Drifter Versus Wall of Omens
- I have no idea on whether or not my meta will be aggro heavy or not so I figured the extra draw would be better for the time being
Damnation or Consume the meek
- Since I'm running the 3 Mystical Teachings package, I figure Consume would be better for the longest time. But I realized I was more scared of tarmagoyf and other high cmc friends that escaped Consume, so I'll try this for now.
Running only 1 of's for teferi, grave titan, and vendillion
- While I'm terribly scared of then being removed before I can use them, I figure I can counter anything trying to shoot them down, and take advantage of the fact that 2/3 can be fetched with Teachings
Throwing in Punishing + Groves
The groves didn't seem to harsh on my mana base so I had them in for a while, but I realized that it requires alot of mana to keep up the fire on their creatures. I've decided that, after playtesting, if it seems like there are several turns I have nothing profitable to do, I'll add it back in.
Ajani Vengeant
- I Love Vengeant, ALOT, so i'm very tempeted to try him out, since he seems like he might be able to do a few things (altho I admit he may not be optimal when versing a field of creatures or PkFire.....)
Chandra 3.0
- It seems very cute to have her replicate almost everything in the deck, but I'm wary about spending 5 mana to double bolt and then see her bite the dust.
:symw::symu: Delver
:symr::symb::symw: Stone-Blade
EDH:
:symr::symu::symb: Thraximundar
Norin the wary
:symr::symw: Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Relentless Rats.deck
So you posted a deck to the front page without knowing if it was even good? Yeah that will attract the masses.
So outside of losing the dice roll to bloodmoon.deck you think the deck is good...there is no way im going to play a deck like that and there is no way im playing spell pierce in a non aggressive blue deck to get around the blood moon.
3 islands is all the basics you need. I've been playing with fetchlands and shocks for forever it doesn't hurt nearly as much as you are acting like it does.
This is fine. I kinda like the fact that you built it to try and make g1 against 12 post manageable, but thoughtseize is going to lose you a ton of games against zoo in the mainboard. In my opinion losing game 1 to a combo deck when your deck is built to handle aggro is okay, because the entire sideboard is just pure combo hate.
I lost game 1 to scapeshift in extended all the time. When you board in like 10 cards for a match up they don't even recognize your deck anymore and the lesser players will derp all over the place because of it.
This is simply not true. U/b in standard did really well against the kut with preordain and spreading seas and still had an excellent match up. Granted they had jace, but he was mostly for fatesealing in that match which isn't the same as drawing cards.
Also, this is my current list (along with a small write-up), for anyone interested:
4 Reflecting Pool
4 Vivid Creek
3 Vivid Marsh
2 Vivid Meadow
2 Sunken Ruins
3 Mystic Gate
2 Cascade Bluffs
2 Scalding Tarn
3 Island
1 Mountain
2 Mulldrifter
2 Grave Titan
Removal (9):
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Firespout
2 Path to Exile
Utility Spells (16):
4 Preordain
4 Esper Charm
4 Cryptic Command
4 Spreading Seas
Card Advantage (5):
3 Cruel Ultimatum
2 Blue Sun's Zenith
4 Fulminator Mage
3 Thoughtseize
2 Vendilion Clique
2 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Damnation
1 Path to Exile
1 Identity Crisis
1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
Creatures:
Mulldrifter is a fairly standard choice. Divination on a stick is nothing to scoff at, especially when the stick is a 2/2 flier. Not to mention that I can Evoke for cards in a pinch, adding some bonus synergy with Cruel Ultimatum.
Grave Titan is my finisher of choice. He ends the game in 2 swings, and even having him swing once creates enough board presence to potentially outlast your opponent. The bodies he leaves behind can serve as a nice beatdown swarm or as chump blockers, if necessary, and this slight resistance to Path is what made me choose him over Wurmcoil Engine as my main beatstick.
Removal:
I've found 6 1-mana removal spells to be sweet spot, and I obviously want to draw more Bolts early game than Paths, so I've maxed out on those and gone for only 2 Path to Exile (with another in the sideboard). 3 Firespout round out my mainboard removal package, serving as an absolute house against Zoo decks. Bolting a Nacatl turn 1 is a huge tempo swing, and wiping their board turn 3 with Spout is almost always a win.
Utility Spells:
Cryptic Command is a no-brainer, and deserves 4 slots in this deck regardless of build, I believe. The card is too good to not run, and UUU isn't as hard on the mana base as you'd think it would be.
Esper Charm serves as another utility spell. Whether it becomes Divination, Mind Rot, or Demystify, the point of this card is it's lack of a dead state at any point in the game (and at Instant speed!). With my card advantage package, I tend to use these as aggressive Mind Rots, which helps me improve my combo matchup, as they may be forced to discard crucial spells.
Preordain is a filter-engine. Stacking the deck from early to late game, bottoming extra Ultimatums or Titans when I already have the board on lock-down, etc. I believe it was Chapin that said "Drawing a land can be bad. Drawing a spell can be bad. Drawing Preordain is never bad."
Spreading Seas is a personal choice. I don't like the 12-post matchup preboard, so I wanted to try and fix it up a little bit with some mainboard land-destruction. Fulminator Mage, while good, could prove less than useful, so I turned to my trust set of cantripping Seas. I must admit, I have a slight fetish for cantrips. :3
Card Advantage:
Cruel Ultimatum is the namesake of the deck. Run 3, resolve one, win the game.
Blue Sun's Zenith is my repeatable CA engine. Shuffling back into my library is huge, and it also effectively makes me immune to mill, since I can always cast it for 0 and shuffle it back in. That being said, the Instant speed is what really drew me to this over Mind Spring, despite the shuffle effect. I wanted a scalable, repeatable card advantage engine (RIP Jace) to help propel myself into the late game, and it has one me multiple games as I buried my opponent in CA on the end of their turn, untapped, and promptly cast Ultimatum. The card wins games, I'm telling you.
Sideboard:
Fulminator Mage is my second 4-of land destruction spell for the Cloudpost matchup. His sacrifice effect makes him synergize with Ultimatum incredibly well, and the ultimate goal in this matchup is to lock them off of Cloudpost ramp. Once that is done, the game is essentially won.
Thoughtseize and Vendilion Clique are my anti-combo cards (and also come in against 12-post). Ripping key spells from their hand seems like a good gameplan against combo decks, and it really allows me to save Cryptics for must-counter spells. They have a Melira and a Finks but no sac outlet? Save it for the outlet. Twin and no Exarch? Keep Path mana up for when they finally do play the little bugger. etc. Information is your most potent weapon against combo, and these cards do it better than any others.
Maelstrom Pulse is my catch-all removal spell, and doubles as a board wipe against token decks (should those exist). If I feel like the 4 Bolt, 3 Path, 3 Spout isn't enough, I'll side these guys in for good measure. Or, if I'm up against Pyromancer or some artifact-based deck, Pulse comes doubly in handy.
Damnation and Path to Exile are my anti-aggro sideboard measures. Path almost always comes in, Damnation is more of a tool against mid-range. I will side it in if I am particularly having trouble with large Goyfs, but I don't worry too much otherwise.
Identity Crisis and Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir are my cards for the control mirrors. Both are absolutely game-breaking. Crisis is huge amounts of card advantage (especially against any Sun Titan based decks), while Teferi forces them to use counter magic on their turn, while I can tap out for threats on their turn and play draw-go the rest of the game.
Legacy: UB(R/G) Storm UB(R/G)
Vintage: UBG Gush Storm UBG
I would try to cut 1-2 filter lands for something else. They are incredibly in consistent, and a hand with two of them is usually an auto mulligan.
Albert Einstein
Thomas Jefferson