This is the main legacy deck I've been developing ever since survival madness rotated away. I made a few posts about other decks I thought were interesting, but this one has been my baby, and is a blast to play.
For anybody who was familiar with last season's extended, there was a deck known as UGR goodstuff that was an aggro-control deck which used a combination of insanely powerful cascades, countermagic, and awesome creatures to win games. It was simply called goodstuff since it played just about all the power cards that were strong in the format.
While Legacy has a lot of power cards that are spread across a lot of decks, this deck uses a lot of the same interactions and functions off many of the same principles as the old extended version of this deck.
Why play this deck?
This is a deck that's good vs. the field, quite literally. It has very little "bad" matchups, and also has a few very powerful plays of it's own. This deck is strong vs. all the tribal decks in Legacy, and is pretty good against Zoo as well. The only slight weakness this deck may have is a lack of a definitive way to kill goyfs (since most removal in this deck is red by nature). Outside that, not much else stands out as a glaring weakness. This isn't too far off from Canadian threshold, except it plays "bigger" and ignores slowing an opponent's tempo in favor of gaining card advantage as the game goes along.
This is for all intensive purposes, a mid-range deck.
Card Chocies
Grim Lavamancer - I was hesitant at first, but Lavamancer is such a strong card vs. Merfolk, Goblins, or really, any creature based decks. Even if it can't kill, it still deals 2 damage directly to an opponent's face, or breaks goyf wars. 1 additional mancer' is thrown into the sideboard, and gets sided in vs. tribal aggro decks.
Bloodbraid Elf - Not a very popular card in Legacy due to the overall "power" of other 4 drops in legacy. While 4 mana gives you progenitus, Bloodbraid Elf is a very solid choice for a few reasons. Elf works around counter-magic, and deals 3 damage the turn of. In conjunction with Brainstorm shenanigans & Library manipulation, the cascades possible in this deck can be pretty crazy, frequently drawing you 3 cards off ancestral vision, or putting into play 5/6 goyfs. Further, there will never be the problem of having no creatures in play to sac to a natural order. I'm not here to say Bloodbraid is more powerful than Natural order overall, but it's a better "fit" in this deck than Natural Order is.
Jace - He's proven his worth in legacy. This deck plays a pretty high landbase for a legacy based deck, and even in the face of disruption, almost never fails to hit the 4 mana mark in a game. Sakura Tribe Elder assists in ensuring land-drops while staving off aggro decks at the same time. Jace is one of the few "answers" to enemy goyfs, or really large Knight of the Reliquaries.
Ancestral Vision - Another awesome fit in here. Getting Vision opening hand is a strong play no matter who you face, as it will almost always draw you 3 cards without any major drawbacks. When combined with Bloodbraid, it basically wins you the game off a cascade.
Electrolyze - Not the most powerful or efficient burn spell in the world, but it does what it needs to do - kills tribal lords, cantrips (making it a great cascade), and is pitchable to Force of Will.
Slagstorm - Outclasses firespout in this deck. The most important part is the option to deal direct damage, which working off a cascade, makes it a very important card. Slagstorm seals the deal vs. Goblins, Merfolk, Elves, death and taxes, etc... and is never a "dead" card like firespout is.
Treetop Village - This is a less common manland in Legacy, but it's not to be taken lightly. When fighting manland battles, Village always wins the battle vs. factories or mutavaults unless they're pumped by opposing creatures. This alone makes it valuable, and while it does come into play tapped, having 3 tap-lands in this deck really doesn't hurt it at all.
Sakura-Tribe Elder - Always has been a good card, and it's pretty useful in here since there are a lot of 3 and 4 mana spells in this deck. When playing vs. Wastelands and mana disruption, Elder becomes much more valuable. Vs. decks without the aforementioned cards, it's a good card to sideboard away.
Vendilion Clique - It's good. It's instant speed. Its a great cascade. It's very disruptive. What else needs to be said here? I've been thinking of playing 3, but some additional testing needs to be made.
Good Stuff attempted to capitalize on the cheap combos in Extended and ended up just getting hated out and unplayed at PT: Amsterdam.
Ancestral Vision is awful in this format. You are better off with Sylvan Library in your deck, which provides nearly the same effect without the wait.
Electrolyze is slow and narrow. It only really trumps match ups like Elves! where you can disrupt them, but with its cost it will never come down in time.
Tribe-Elder seems strictly worse than Hierarch given your list given the fact that you will be swinging in.
Arguing what is better or worse is moot since Tempo Thresh is a completely different deck. Let me explain the differences.
Tempo thresh is a deck that wants to lay down threats, then prevent an opponent from interacting with you or ever getting to their "late game". This deck on the other hand, wants to play the role of a control deck early game, then seal the game turn 4-5 through crazy card advantage and deck power. It's basically a role swap, but as a result, this deck is very strong vs. tribal aggro (whereas tempo thresh isn't particularly strong against). Due to cards like Visions, Bloodbraid and Clique, this deck also plays well vs. control, depending on what the opponent is playing.
This build eschews tempo in favor of card advantage & late game power. Ancestral Vision is a good card. I don't care whether or not it's played in all the top Legacy decks, that doesn't make it bad. And comparing it to Sylvan Library is terrible since you're missing the entire idea of this deck. First off, it's important to know this is a Bloodbraid Elf deck built to abuse the cascade mechanic (which conveniently gives a big advantage in the face of counterbalance/opposing control decks).
For Sylvan Library to give the same effect as Vision, you would have to lose 12 life... which is stupid, not to mention it's a terribad cascade with Bloodbraid elf.
Electrolyze is good because it's never a dead card. At the very worst, it deals 2 damage end of turn then replaces itself. It deals 2 damage and draws off a cascade, and is instant speed. It's not meant to be an early answer to elves (and yes, combo elves go off turn 3 usually, so it CAN be an answer to elves, especially when they'll be slowed turn 1-2 by bolts, force of wills, and lavamancers). As I also mentioned, it's pitchable to Force of Will, which is pretty important in here.
Generally, vs aggro, this deck burns off early aggro creatures, then explodes out turn 4-5 with Big creatures of it's own without losing card advantage, effectively sealing the game out against any aggro deck.
You may be right that Hierarch may be better, although I've found most games I want to hold my mana open turn 1 to bolt a lackey, or lay down an Ancestral Vision. Further, if I have to board-sweep with a slagstorm, Tribe-Elder still gives me land, and it can chump opposing goyfs and nacatls while not causing me to lose tempo of my own. There aren't many 3 drops i'm in dire need to accelerate into here, so Hierarch is a bit useless there as well, the main cards I want to accel into are my 4 drops.
I'll probably edit this a bit more as I want to test a few other cards in here, but this is the best list I've played with so far. I would like to try out Lorescale Coatl in here simply because I draw so many cards it could easily be a good "trump" card to giant knights & Goyfs, although I'm not entirely sure what I would take out.
Ancestral Vision can only be cascaded. It relies on another card to be played entirely. My point about Sylvan Library is that it fulfills the role of card advantage. It also allows you to STACK YOUR CARDS to enable BBE. I think this alone makes a very good candidate to take cards from other slots.
I don't feel satisfied that you really answered why Electrolyze is better than other stuff, like a third Grim and a land/Jace. Electrolyze fulfills the roll of either of those two cards in the situation you described, but I feel like I would rather have Grim or Jace tbh. The fact that you can cascade it feels irrelevant because you almost always prefer to hit something else given your list.
Have you thought about Fallout instead of Slagstorm? I actually believe this slot is completely meta dependent.
Last thought is that your list could benefit from Jitte somewhere.
Yeah, I've thought about jitte, but I'm not sure if I play enough creatures to take advantage of it.
I like slagstorm more than fallout in here since it offers a bit more utility and reach than fallout would.
As far as stacking cascades, well I do agree library could help, but brainstorm just about always fills that role anyway when I can eot brainstorm, then play a t4 elf into visions or whatever else I want to cascade into.
Maybe taking out electrolyze would be smart, but what would I play in it's place? I need enough blue sources to pitch to force. I've actually given a bit of thought to cryptic command, but playing 8 4 drops in legacy seems a bit suicidal, although I suppose it's probably something worth at least testing.
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Sensei's divining top is better than sylvan library...IMO
Volcanic fallout is better than slagstorm IMO, since it is uncounterable. however, your creatures like bloodbraid elf cannot evade it, maybe that's why you choose slagstorm. am i right?
personally, I like the concept of the deck, IMO, you will need more efficient card to be able to not lose card advantage same for your sideboard, pyrostatic pillar might be at your disadvantage.
stifle might be of handy for early game control. might be a good replacement for electrolyze.
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Sensei's divining top is better than sylvan library...IMO
Volcanic fallout is better than slagstorm IMO, since it is uncounterable. however, your creatures like bloodbraid elf cannot evade it, maybe that's why you choose slagstorm. am i right?
personally, I like the concept of the deck, IMO, you will need more efficient card to be able to not lose card advantage same for your sideboard, pyrostatic pillar might be at your disadvantage.
stifle might be of handy for early game control. might be a good replacement for electrolyze.
Pyrostatic pillar is a tool against Storm combo, with the general idea that if I lay it down early, it'll basically kill them.
Volcanic fallout is a bit of a paper tiger. It's good, but with 2 lords, it's useless vs. Merfolk, and ideally, you want to hit more than 1-2 creatures. But as you mentioned, Slagstorm isn't a terrible cascade, whereas a cascaded fallout may kill off my own creatures (even though most of them are fairy big outside clique). Having options is simply nice to have. If Merfolk want to waste 2 cards to counter a slagstorm, that's really not a big deal to me since I still have lavamancers, bolts, jaces, and other cards to deal with pesky fish.
I think stifle is a good idea, but I still hate the idea of cascading into it, even if there is a baseline amount of library manipulation here.
I think you actually abuse Library great, but now you would only have 15 cards you can pitch to Force instead of 18. Though honestly, minimum is agreed to be 20 to consistently use FoW. One thought is to use Lorescale Coatl in place of Goyf (19). With 10 draw 3 effects, Coatl grows very fast. Another is to replace the Tribe Elder/Hierarch slot with Preordain or Ponder.
Okay, got a good gauntlet of testing in with this today. I gotta be honest, I REALLY like playing with this. I don't feel like I'm out of a game vs. any given deck in Legacy as I legitimately can answer almost anything.
Here are some quick highlights of matches & how they played out.
Vs. Landstill Win 2-0
G1: Opponent lays down a Top. I play my force of will on it, he counters with his own force of will. He's already down to 4 cards in hand on the draw. At this point, i'm sitting with 4 in hand. Being on the play helped here. I draw then pass turn assuming he's playing Counterbalance with a possibility for Landstill. He does the same and I play an EOT brainstorm into a fetch shuffling away a few excess lands. I play my 3rd land, and pass the turn as I wanted to see what his plan was before I played my Goyf. He plays a wasteland, then drops a standstill. In response however, I flash in a Vendilion Clique and he had no answer to it. He eventally draws a factory, but it was too late as I already had him down to 3-4 life. He scoops.
G2: Can't remember the opening few turns, but I do remember that there were a few force of will battles going on. He assembles counterbalance, which surprised me since I was thinking he was playing exclusive Landstill. I boarded in Krosan Grips, and kill off his balance right after he drops it. I had 1-2 creatures on board and Bloodbraid Elf in hand. He drops a Humility with 1 card in hand, but I haste into a Bloodbraid elf and Sakura Tribe elder giving me 4 bodies while he was at 4 life with 1 card in hand. I Bolt him, then swing in for victory as he couldn't deal with my board presence.
Vs. Merfolk (2 matches) Win 2-1 -
G1 on the play I land a Lavamancer. He had no forces in hand, and the Lavamancer basically wins the game by itself here. I nab a t2 Goyf and burn off any of his creatures he resolves. Game is over quick here.
G2 he lands Vault, Vial, then standstills right away which I counter with Force. next turn he plays cursecatcher into Coralhelm commander. I bolt the commander, but he counters with a spell pierce. I draw some creatures, but wasn't able to outrace him at that point.
G3 was interesting. He plays a mutavault into a t2 standstill while I have no counter in hand or creatures to play. I instantly go for a goyf instead of letting him get too much advantage. He draws, but didn't draw into a Force luckily. He has 6 cards in hand I have 4. Luckily, I have 2 Bolts and a Bloodbraid in hand with 3 lands in play. I swing in with my 4/4 Goyf and start hammering away. Despite fighting through the resolved standstill I end up winning this one with 12 life to spare after burning off his lords.
I played 2 matches vs. Merfolk Earlier and I went 2-0 vs. them. If they get their lords online, it's a tough match, but it's generally rather favorable due to the red removal played here. Red Elemental Blast is awesome in this matchup, and is also a good cascade here. The most important thing here is not letting a standstill resolve, as well as keeping his lord count under control.
Vs. Dark Horizons, Win 2-0 - This matchup depends entirely on how many discard effects he can resolve early on. 2 Hymns is tough to recover from. I can't remember the exact way this went, but I won 2-0 here. I thought it was going to be tougher than it was, but it turned out to be a pretty easy match. Ancestral Visions was an allstar in this game since it allowed me to come back in both games after being hit with 2-for-1 discard effects. After that point, Lavamancer kept Bob in check and won at least 1 goyf vs. goyf war. I've found that Ancestral Vision is basically a Standstill in this deck without drawbacks, and a card that basically wins you the game vs. any deck that doesn't want the game to end before turn 4.
Game 2 ended up being a blowout. He resolved a top, Diamond, then used a wasteland on one of my lands. I get out a Sakura Tribe Elder, and pass the turn. He vindicates my land and passes the turn. I sacrifice Sakura Tribe Elder to grab another land. This basically won the game for me, as I had 2 lands left in hand enabling me to hit my 3 drops then brainstorm for my 4th land. I forget the sequence of events after that, but I remember Cascading a Bloodbraid into Slagstorm killing off a newly resolved Knight of the Reliquary, then attacking in for the win.
Vs. Goblins, Win 2-1 - This was a little bit tougher than Merfolk due to how quick Goblins can rebuild and chump block Goyfs. Slagstorm really came in handy here as did Red Elemental Blast.
I ended up going 2-1 after some well placed burn spells and making sure to kill off his piledrivers. Sakura Tribe-Elder was really really helpful here since it once again made wastelands and ports much less effective vs. me while providing a fog effect for at least 1 turn. The game was pretty back and forth each time, but I came on top 2 times.
Vs. Burn, Win 2-1 - I lost g1 after drawing no disruption or threats to race with.
Game 2 and Game 3 I side in Blue elemental Blasts and make sure to save my counters for the price of progress & fireblasts. G2 and G3 I was able to outrace him. Goyfs won me the match here along with my countermagic.
Vs. Reanimator, Loss 1-2 - G1 he gets a t3 Inkwell Leviathan, while I have a 3 power Vendilion Clique on board with him at 16 life. I play my t4 drop, and cascade a Bloodbraid elf into a Goyf. He attacked with the leviathan bringing me down to 2, but I knew I'd be able to outrace him if he resurrected a non-lifelinking creature.
G2 was a bit more difficult as he was able to re-animate an Empyrial Archangel after I fought a Force of Will & Thoughtseize. Despite this, I was able to kill off his archangel through the combined efforts of Vendilion Clique, Lavamancer & a Lightning Bolt I had been saving. I get him down to 1 life, then he entombs a Sphinx of the Steel Wind into his second exhume. I had drawn into another Force thanks to Visions, but he somehow drew ANOTHER force of will for his 2nd creature to reanimate. He basically had the perfect hand here. After he resolved the sphinx, I burn him for 2 with Lavamancer, then EOT brainstorm looking for a bolt or burn spell. Naturally, I find nothing and he wins the game. He couldn't have had a better hand/counter suite to what I played if he was playing mental magic.
G3 I lost after accidentally brainstorming away my tormod's crypt to second card from the top after a Thoughtseize. I feel like an idiot as he gets 2 creatures into the graveyard while I can't remove them due to crypt not being my draw card. He told me I would have won if I'd had the Crypt.
Overall, this was actually a pretty tough match, but outside accidentally putting a card back in the wrong order, I should have won this match. The deck certainly didn't lose the game for me here.
Vs. Green & Taxes, Win 2-0 - This match went similarly to the other Vial tribal matchups. Burn off their creatures, counter, and simply win the game. The burn spells really helped in creature deadlocks. I managed to resolve Jace in both games while the opponent scooped.
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I finally realized a card i'd been missing in the sideboard that was really important.
Threads of Disloyalty... for no other reason than the fact that it's a 3 mana answer to Goyf, and a great cascade target.
I took out electrolyze, and while I loved having it vs. decks like Goblins and such, I like having Coatl more vs. decks that play goyf and knight, since it grows bigger than they do typically in 1 turn or less.
Imo you are a little low on blue cards to be playing FoW. It seems to be working for ya however I would add 2 more blue cards before feeling comfortable. Perhaps removing Your lavamancers for Fire//Ice? Moveing them to the side?
Also you could imo remove your two wastelands... they don't seem to be doing that much in your deck. Perhaps going like this, since the lavamancers are pretty good:
-2 Wasteland
+1 island?
+1 Jace/Ponder
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"Should have draw a card on it, still only playable in casual or limited. I mean it loses to liquify"
Said about Yawgmoth’s Will
Imo you are a little low on blue cards to be playing FoW. It seems to be working for ya however I would add 2 more blue cards before feeling comfortable. Perhaps removing Your lavamancers for Fire//Ice? Moveing them to the side?
Also you could imo remove your two wastelands... they don't seem to be doing that much in your deck. Perhaps going like this, since the lavamancers are pretty good:
-2 Wasteland
+1 island?
+1 Jace/Ponder
Hrm, Going down to 22 lands seems risky, but I suppose when you count the Wastelands as null anyway, it would make sense. I don't think it would be a bad idea adding an additional jace, but I need to make sure I get to the 4 drop spot in the first place.
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For anybody who was familiar with last season's extended, there was a deck known as UGR goodstuff that was an aggro-control deck which used a combination of insanely powerful cascades, countermagic, and awesome creatures to win games. It was simply called goodstuff since it played just about all the power cards that were strong in the format.
While Legacy has a lot of power cards that are spread across a lot of decks, this deck uses a lot of the same interactions and functions off many of the same principles as the old extended version of this deck.
Why play this deck?
This is a deck that's good vs. the field, quite literally. It has very little "bad" matchups, and also has a few very powerful plays of it's own. This deck is strong vs. all the tribal decks in Legacy, and is pretty good against Zoo as well. The only slight weakness this deck may have is a lack of a definitive way to kill goyfs (since most removal in this deck is red by nature). Outside that, not much else stands out as a glaring weakness. This isn't too far off from Canadian threshold, except it plays "bigger" and ignores slowing an opponent's tempo in favor of gaining card advantage as the game goes along.
2x Grim Lavamancer
4x Tarmogoyf
3x Sakura-Tribe Elder
2x Vendilion Clique
4x Bloodbraid Elf
Instants/Sorceries
4x Lightning Bolt
2x Electrolyze
4x Brainstorm
4x Force of Will
2x Slagstorm
4x Ancestral Vision
2x Jace, The Mind Sculptor
Lands
1x Taiga
2x Tropical Island
3x Volcanic Island
1x Wasteland
3x Treetop Village
2x Island
1x Forest
2x Mountain
4x Misty Rainforest
4x Scalding Tarn
1x Grim Lavamancer
2x Red Elemental Blast
3x Tormod's Crypt
3x Krosan Grip
4x Mindbreak Trap
2x Blue Elemental Blast
This is for all intensive purposes, a mid-range deck.
Card Chocies
Grim Lavamancer - I was hesitant at first, but Lavamancer is such a strong card vs. Merfolk, Goblins, or really, any creature based decks. Even if it can't kill, it still deals 2 damage directly to an opponent's face, or breaks goyf wars. 1 additional mancer' is thrown into the sideboard, and gets sided in vs. tribal aggro decks.
Bloodbraid Elf - Not a very popular card in Legacy due to the overall "power" of other 4 drops in legacy. While 4 mana gives you progenitus, Bloodbraid Elf is a very solid choice for a few reasons. Elf works around counter-magic, and deals 3 damage the turn of. In conjunction with Brainstorm shenanigans & Library manipulation, the cascades possible in this deck can be pretty crazy, frequently drawing you 3 cards off ancestral vision, or putting into play 5/6 goyfs. Further, there will never be the problem of having no creatures in play to sac to a natural order. I'm not here to say Bloodbraid is more powerful than Natural order overall, but it's a better "fit" in this deck than Natural Order is.
Jace - He's proven his worth in legacy. This deck plays a pretty high landbase for a legacy based deck, and even in the face of disruption, almost never fails to hit the 4 mana mark in a game. Sakura Tribe Elder assists in ensuring land-drops while staving off aggro decks at the same time. Jace is one of the few "answers" to enemy goyfs, or really large Knight of the Reliquaries.
Ancestral Vision - Another awesome fit in here. Getting Vision opening hand is a strong play no matter who you face, as it will almost always draw you 3 cards without any major drawbacks. When combined with Bloodbraid, it basically wins you the game off a cascade.
Electrolyze - Not the most powerful or efficient burn spell in the world, but it does what it needs to do - kills tribal lords, cantrips (making it a great cascade), and is pitchable to Force of Will.
Slagstorm - Outclasses firespout in this deck. The most important part is the option to deal direct damage, which working off a cascade, makes it a very important card. Slagstorm seals the deal vs. Goblins, Merfolk, Elves, death and taxes, etc... and is never a "dead" card like firespout is.
Treetop Village - This is a less common manland in Legacy, but it's not to be taken lightly. When fighting manland battles, Village always wins the battle vs. factories or mutavaults unless they're pumped by opposing creatures. This alone makes it valuable, and while it does come into play tapped, having 3 tap-lands in this deck really doesn't hurt it at all.
Sakura-Tribe Elder - Always has been a good card, and it's pretty useful in here since there are a lot of 3 and 4 mana spells in this deck. When playing vs. Wastelands and mana disruption, Elder becomes much more valuable. Vs. decks without the aforementioned cards, it's a good card to sideboard away.
Vendilion Clique - It's good. It's instant speed. Its a great cascade. It's very disruptive. What else needs to be said here? I've been thinking of playing 3, but some additional testing needs to be made.
Ancestral Vision is awful in this format. You are better off with Sylvan Library in your deck, which provides nearly the same effect without the wait.
Electrolyze is slow and narrow. It only really trumps match ups like Elves! where you can disrupt them, but with its cost it will never come down in time.
Tribe-Elder seems strictly worse than Hierarch given your list given the fact that you will be swinging in.
Why is this different/better than Tempo Thresh?
Tempo thresh is a deck that wants to lay down threats, then prevent an opponent from interacting with you or ever getting to their "late game". This deck on the other hand, wants to play the role of a control deck early game, then seal the game turn 4-5 through crazy card advantage and deck power. It's basically a role swap, but as a result, this deck is very strong vs. tribal aggro (whereas tempo thresh isn't particularly strong against). Due to cards like Visions, Bloodbraid and Clique, this deck also plays well vs. control, depending on what the opponent is playing.
This build eschews tempo in favor of card advantage & late game power. Ancestral Vision is a good card. I don't care whether or not it's played in all the top Legacy decks, that doesn't make it bad. And comparing it to Sylvan Library is terrible since you're missing the entire idea of this deck. First off, it's important to know this is a Bloodbraid Elf deck built to abuse the cascade mechanic (which conveniently gives a big advantage in the face of counterbalance/opposing control decks).
For Sylvan Library to give the same effect as Vision, you would have to lose 12 life... which is stupid, not to mention it's a terribad cascade with Bloodbraid elf.
Electrolyze is good because it's never a dead card. At the very worst, it deals 2 damage end of turn then replaces itself. It deals 2 damage and draws off a cascade, and is instant speed. It's not meant to be an early answer to elves (and yes, combo elves go off turn 3 usually, so it CAN be an answer to elves, especially when they'll be slowed turn 1-2 by bolts, force of wills, and lavamancers). As I also mentioned, it's pitchable to Force of Will, which is pretty important in here.
Generally, vs aggro, this deck burns off early aggro creatures, then explodes out turn 4-5 with Big creatures of it's own without losing card advantage, effectively sealing the game out against any aggro deck.
You may be right that Hierarch may be better, although I've found most games I want to hold my mana open turn 1 to bolt a lackey, or lay down an Ancestral Vision. Further, if I have to board-sweep with a slagstorm, Tribe-Elder still gives me land, and it can chump opposing goyfs and nacatls while not causing me to lose tempo of my own. There aren't many 3 drops i'm in dire need to accelerate into here, so Hierarch is a bit useless there as well, the main cards I want to accel into are my 4 drops.
I'll probably edit this a bit more as I want to test a few other cards in here, but this is the best list I've played with so far. I would like to try out Lorescale Coatl in here simply because I draw so many cards it could easily be a good "trump" card to giant knights & Goyfs, although I'm not entirely sure what I would take out.
I don't feel satisfied that you really answered why Electrolyze is better than other stuff, like a third Grim and a land/Jace. Electrolyze fulfills the roll of either of those two cards in the situation you described, but I feel like I would rather have Grim or Jace tbh. The fact that you can cascade it feels irrelevant because you almost always prefer to hit something else given your list.
Have you thought about Fallout instead of Slagstorm? I actually believe this slot is completely meta dependent.
Last thought is that your list could benefit from Jitte somewhere.
I like slagstorm more than fallout in here since it offers a bit more utility and reach than fallout would.
As far as stacking cascades, well I do agree library could help, but brainstorm just about always fills that role anyway when I can eot brainstorm, then play a t4 elf into visions or whatever else I want to cascade into.
Maybe taking out electrolyze would be smart, but what would I play in it's place? I need enough blue sources to pitch to force. I've actually given a bit of thought to cryptic command, but playing 8 4 drops in legacy seems a bit suicidal, although I suppose it's probably something worth at least testing.
Sensei's divining top is better than sylvan library...IMO
Volcanic fallout is better than slagstorm IMO, since it is uncounterable. however, your creatures like bloodbraid elf cannot evade it, maybe that's why you choose slagstorm. am i right?
personally, I like the concept of the deck, IMO, you will need more efficient card to be able to not lose card advantage same for your sideboard, pyrostatic pillar might be at your disadvantage.
stifle might be of handy for early game control. might be a good replacement for electrolyze.
EDH - UWGrand Arbiter Agustin IV
UBW Oloro, Ageless Ascetic
Modern - Mono U tron / Polymorph / NFTW (ninja for the win)GR tron GR
Buy All the Dual Lands!!!
Buy All the fetches!
Create tons of EDH Decks!!!
Eat Nothing but Oats!! (LOL, not true)
Train MMA!!!
Marry My girlfriend!!!
Get her Pregnant only Once!
Teach my Son/Daughter Sports and magic cards!!!
Continue my legacy son!!!/Daughter!!
Pyrostatic pillar is a tool against Storm combo, with the general idea that if I lay it down early, it'll basically kill them.
Volcanic fallout is a bit of a paper tiger. It's good, but with 2 lords, it's useless vs. Merfolk, and ideally, you want to hit more than 1-2 creatures. But as you mentioned, Slagstorm isn't a terrible cascade, whereas a cascaded fallout may kill off my own creatures (even though most of them are fairy big outside clique). Having options is simply nice to have. If Merfolk want to waste 2 cards to counter a slagstorm, that's really not a big deal to me since I still have lavamancers, bolts, jaces, and other cards to deal with pesky fish.
I think stifle is a good idea, but I still hate the idea of cascading into it, even if there is a baseline amount of library manipulation here.
-1 Ancestral Vision, -2 Electrolyze
+2 Sylvan Library, +1 Grim Lavamancer
I think you actually abuse Library great, but now you would only have 15 cards you can pitch to Force instead of 18. Though honestly, minimum is agreed to be 20 to consistently use FoW. One thought is to use Lorescale Coatl in place of Goyf (19). With 10 draw 3 effects, Coatl grows very fast. Another is to replace the Tribe Elder/Hierarch slot with Preordain or Ponder.
Here are some quick highlights of matches & how they played out.
Vs. Landstill Win 2-0
G1: Opponent lays down a Top. I play my force of will on it, he counters with his own force of will. He's already down to 4 cards in hand on the draw. At this point, i'm sitting with 4 in hand. Being on the play helped here. I draw then pass turn assuming he's playing Counterbalance with a possibility for Landstill. He does the same and I play an EOT brainstorm into a fetch shuffling away a few excess lands. I play my 3rd land, and pass the turn as I wanted to see what his plan was before I played my Goyf. He plays a wasteland, then drops a standstill. In response however, I flash in a Vendilion Clique and he had no answer to it. He eventally draws a factory, but it was too late as I already had him down to 3-4 life. He scoops.
G2: Can't remember the opening few turns, but I do remember that there were a few force of will battles going on. He assembles counterbalance, which surprised me since I was thinking he was playing exclusive Landstill. I boarded in Krosan Grips, and kill off his balance right after he drops it. I had 1-2 creatures on board and Bloodbraid Elf in hand. He drops a Humility with 1 card in hand, but I haste into a Bloodbraid elf and Sakura Tribe elder giving me 4 bodies while he was at 4 life with 1 card in hand. I Bolt him, then swing in for victory as he couldn't deal with my board presence.
Vs. Merfolk (2 matches) Win 2-1 -
G1 on the play I land a Lavamancer. He had no forces in hand, and the Lavamancer basically wins the game by itself here. I nab a t2 Goyf and burn off any of his creatures he resolves. Game is over quick here.
G2 he lands Vault, Vial, then standstills right away which I counter with Force. next turn he plays cursecatcher into Coralhelm commander. I bolt the commander, but he counters with a spell pierce. I draw some creatures, but wasn't able to outrace him at that point.
G3 was interesting. He plays a mutavault into a t2 standstill while I have no counter in hand or creatures to play. I instantly go for a goyf instead of letting him get too much advantage. He draws, but didn't draw into a Force luckily. He has 6 cards in hand I have 4. Luckily, I have 2 Bolts and a Bloodbraid in hand with 3 lands in play. I swing in with my 4/4 Goyf and start hammering away. Despite fighting through the resolved standstill I end up winning this one with 12 life to spare after burning off his lords.
I played 2 matches vs. Merfolk Earlier and I went 2-0 vs. them. If they get their lords online, it's a tough match, but it's generally rather favorable due to the red removal played here. Red Elemental Blast is awesome in this matchup, and is also a good cascade here. The most important thing here is not letting a standstill resolve, as well as keeping his lord count under control.
Vs. Dark Horizons, Win 2-0 - This matchup depends entirely on how many discard effects he can resolve early on. 2 Hymns is tough to recover from. I can't remember the exact way this went, but I won 2-0 here. I thought it was going to be tougher than it was, but it turned out to be a pretty easy match. Ancestral Visions was an allstar in this game since it allowed me to come back in both games after being hit with 2-for-1 discard effects. After that point, Lavamancer kept Bob in check and won at least 1 goyf vs. goyf war. I've found that Ancestral Vision is basically a Standstill in this deck without drawbacks, and a card that basically wins you the game vs. any deck that doesn't want the game to end before turn 4.
Game 2 ended up being a blowout. He resolved a top, Diamond, then used a wasteland on one of my lands. I get out a Sakura Tribe Elder, and pass the turn. He vindicates my land and passes the turn. I sacrifice Sakura Tribe Elder to grab another land. This basically won the game for me, as I had 2 lands left in hand enabling me to hit my 3 drops then brainstorm for my 4th land. I forget the sequence of events after that, but I remember Cascading a Bloodbraid into Slagstorm killing off a newly resolved Knight of the Reliquary, then attacking in for the win.
Vs. Goblins, Win 2-1 - This was a little bit tougher than Merfolk due to how quick Goblins can rebuild and chump block Goyfs. Slagstorm really came in handy here as did Red Elemental Blast.
I ended up going 2-1 after some well placed burn spells and making sure to kill off his piledrivers. Sakura Tribe-Elder was really really helpful here since it once again made wastelands and ports much less effective vs. me while providing a fog effect for at least 1 turn. The game was pretty back and forth each time, but I came on top 2 times.
Vs. Burn, Win 2-1 - I lost g1 after drawing no disruption or threats to race with.
Game 2 and Game 3 I side in Blue elemental Blasts and make sure to save my counters for the price of progress & fireblasts. G2 and G3 I was able to outrace him. Goyfs won me the match here along with my countermagic.
Vs. Reanimator, Loss 1-2 - G1 he gets a t3 Inkwell Leviathan, while I have a 3 power Vendilion Clique on board with him at 16 life. I play my t4 drop, and cascade a Bloodbraid elf into a Goyf. He attacked with the leviathan bringing me down to 2, but I knew I'd be able to outrace him if he resurrected a non-lifelinking creature.
G2 was a bit more difficult as he was able to re-animate an Empyrial Archangel after I fought a Force of Will & Thoughtseize. Despite this, I was able to kill off his archangel through the combined efforts of Vendilion Clique, Lavamancer & a Lightning Bolt I had been saving. I get him down to 1 life, then he entombs a Sphinx of the Steel Wind into his second exhume. I had drawn into another Force thanks to Visions, but he somehow drew ANOTHER force of will for his 2nd creature to reanimate. He basically had the perfect hand here. After he resolved the sphinx, I burn him for 2 with Lavamancer, then EOT brainstorm looking for a bolt or burn spell. Naturally, I find nothing and he wins the game. He couldn't have had a better hand/counter suite to what I played if he was playing mental magic.
G3 I lost after accidentally brainstorming away my tormod's crypt to second card from the top after a Thoughtseize. I feel like an idiot as he gets 2 creatures into the graveyard while I can't remove them due to crypt not being my draw card. He told me I would have won if I'd had the Crypt.
Overall, this was actually a pretty tough match, but outside accidentally putting a card back in the wrong order, I should have won this match. The deck certainly didn't lose the game for me here.
Vs. Green & Taxes, Win 2-0 - This match went similarly to the other Vial tribal matchups. Burn off their creatures, counter, and simply win the game. The burn spells really helped in creature deadlocks. I managed to resolve Jace in both games while the opponent scooped.
Threads of Disloyalty... for no other reason than the fact that it's a 3 mana answer to Goyf, and a great cascade target.
I took out electrolyze, and while I loved having it vs. decks like Goblins and such, I like having Coatl more vs. decks that play goyf and knight, since it grows bigger than they do typically in 1 turn or less.
2x Grim Lavamancer
4x Tarmogoyf
3x Sakura-Tribe Elder
2x Lorescale Coatl
2x Vendilion Clique
4x Bloodbraid Elf
Instants/Sorceries
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Brainstorm
4x Force of Will
2x Slagstorm
4x Ancestral Vision
2x Jace, The Mind Sculptor
Lands
1x Taiga
2x Tropical Island
3x Volcanic Island
2x Wasteland
3x Treetop Village
2x Island
1x Forest
1x Mountain
4x Misty Rainforest
4x Scalding Tarn
1x Grim Lavamancer
2x Red Elemental Blast
3x Tormod's Crypt
2x Krosan Grip
2x Threads of Disloyalty
3x Mindbreak Trap
2x Blue Elemental Blast
Lorescale coatl has been awesome, and a good 2-of "i get really really big if not dealt with" card.
Also you could imo remove your two wastelands... they don't seem to be doing that much in your deck. Perhaps going like this, since the lavamancers are pretty good:
-2 Wasteland
+1 island?
+1 Jace/Ponder
Said about Yawgmoth’s Will
Credits to Miraculous Recovery Signatures for the truly miraculous sig.
GURRUG Delver
RGoblins
RUGPunishing Balance
Modern:
UR Izzet Tron
Hrm, Going down to 22 lands seems risky, but I suppose when you count the Wastelands as null anyway, it would make sense. I don't think it would be a bad idea adding an additional jace, but I need to make sure I get to the 4 drop spot in the first place.