We either need better low CMC hand disruption or a better engine to get started. As Purklefluff has noted, Gemstone Caverns and SSG both provide a better engine but at other costs.
Edit: Cleaning up some of the writing. Who knows; maybe we will get some <> 1CMC spells in Eldritch Moon but I wouldn't hold my breath.
I guess Ghostfire blade is the closest we have to playable.
It's not hard at all. Oblivion Stone has late game written all over it. When you draw it, just play a little conservative to wipe the board and puke out a bunch of threats after blowing it up.
Match 1 vs Storm:
Thought-Knot disrupted him g1. G2, I went land-relic-land-chalice on one-land-matter reshaper-land-chalice on 2. GG.
Match 2 vs Lantern Control: 2 pithing needle, 4 oblivion stone, 4 chalice, 1 ratchet bomb, 4 thought-knot, 1 endbringer, 3 relic. I have very good game and he didn't stand a chance. I kept a no-fast mana hand in one game because of chalice.
Match 3 vs Jund:
Oblivion Stone did great work again (as it did vs Lantern), taking care of Liliana with friends in two of the games. I kept a questionable hand in G3 (mine, plant, map, 3x relic, temple) But figured I should draw some threats in time. Well I didn't. Felt like a very good matchup for us and I regret boarding out my conduit. I found it really hard to make room for my 3 relics, but I should probably have dropped the mimics.
Match 4 vs Merfolk:
Game one was the nut draw. T1 mimic T2 mimic T3 smasher, scoop. G2 I lost due to some misplays, going for double thoughtknot disruption because I was scared of islandwalk rather than play conduit to stop his 4/4 mutavaults (double MoW). G3 I mapped out Tron on T3, played oblivion stone - into TKS into ulamog. I exiled his library in a couple of turns.
Some thoughts after the first two weeks of testing:
1: Oblivion Stone is fantastic and I am always happy to see it. Even when I don't have Tron (can usually apply a lot of pressure after blowing it).
2: It's a lot more consistent than the previous Eldrazi decks. Tron is a very rewarding plan B.
3: I absolutely do not want to splash a colour. I want to play lands that either tap for double mana immediately (temple) or will soon (tron) in the first turn. I do not want to play a colour-land to play ancient stirrings on T1 because that means Tron can happen on T4 at the earliest. And unlike GR tron we don't really have any "I win" cards besides ulamog so a T4 tron is not something I want to tune for.
4: 3 relics is one too many.
5: If I am to continue playing Conduit of Ruin, it needs to have at least one other target than Ulamog. I'm thinking Bane of Bala Ged could be it. It's easy to cast, and although it is within dismember range, that means the opponent will be forced to let Conduit stay alive. But I'm leaning more toward removing Conduit and Ulamog for one more Mimic and some more Endbringers. I will test it and report.
6: Mimic can still do broken things and I think a playset is correct for the colourless aggro version.
7: Blinkmoth over Ghost Quarter was correct. The deck is too greedy to afford to let go of a land against anything but Tron and Blinkmoth can be a very useful blocker.
I'm going to test blinkmoth nexus instead of ghost quarter today. We're pretty mana greedy and I don't really expect Tron to be a major force going forward.
Has anybody tested against Scapeshift? I feel like we may have a questionable matchup and it seems to be on the rise. I'm running just one warping wail in the board at the moment which seems pretty fragile. Unfortunately nobody local plays scapeshift and I don't have the deck online.
Oblivion stone seems great so far but I haven't done a lot of testing yet. Spatial contortion might work better in the many matchups, but oblivion stone is a nice catch-all and not just a wrath which is the main reason I'm running it(spreading seas, ensnaring bridge).
I'm thinking of dropping the sowers (only useful for ulamog ramp anyway) to go up to 3 or 4 Conduit. That would allow me to drop to 1 ulamog and add a breaker of armies and void winnower or something. And a chalice + void winnower combination from the sideboard sounds like it could be pretty brutal so I'm going to test that.
I'm also considering switching one or two ghost quarters for cavern of souls because I think we might see some more remands and mana leaks in the coming weeks because of ancestral visions.
I tested 200 hands using an online deck generator and the deck seems pretty much exactly as consistent as the old non-tron deck. It fizzled on T3 (just 3 mana) about 20% of time including mulligans). Also it seems mulliganing to 5 is a mistake if you have a tron piece + map. Mulliganing to 6 is very often a good idea but 5 rarely works. It's better to hope for assembling tron on T4/5 than having a hand full of urborgs and ulamogs.
Here's what I am testing now, seems pretty good so far. The idea is that I mulligan if I don't get either an eldrazi temple or two tron pieces. I haven't had to mulligan below 6 in +/- 10 games which is all I've had time to yet. Urborg is basically there just for Sower and Dismember and Conduit of Ruin is "poor man's eye".
I guess Ghostfire blade is the closest we have to playable.
3 Eldrazi Mimic
4 Matter Reshaper
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Reality Smasher
3 Conduit of Ruin
1 Endbringer
1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
4 Expedition Map
4 Dismember
4 Oblivion Stone
2 Gemstone Caverns
2 Wastes
4 Urza's Power Plant
4 Urza's Tower
4 Urza's Mine
4 Eldrazi Temple
3 Relic of Progenitus
3 Gut Shot
2 Pithing Needle
1 Spellskite
1 Ratchet Bomb
4 Chalice of the Void
1 Warping Wail
Match 1 vs Storm:
Thought-Knot disrupted him g1. G2, I went land-relic-land-chalice on one-land-matter reshaper-land-chalice on 2. GG.
Match 2 vs Lantern Control: 2 pithing needle, 4 oblivion stone, 4 chalice, 1 ratchet bomb, 4 thought-knot, 1 endbringer, 3 relic. I have very good game and he didn't stand a chance. I kept a no-fast mana hand in one game because of chalice.
Match 3 vs Jund:
Oblivion Stone did great work again (as it did vs Lantern), taking care of Liliana with friends in two of the games. I kept a questionable hand in G3 (mine, plant, map, 3x relic, temple) But figured I should draw some threats in time. Well I didn't. Felt like a very good matchup for us and I regret boarding out my conduit. I found it really hard to make room for my 3 relics, but I should probably have dropped the mimics.
Match 4 vs Merfolk:
Game one was the nut draw. T1 mimic T2 mimic T3 smasher, scoop. G2 I lost due to some misplays, going for double thoughtknot disruption because I was scared of islandwalk rather than play conduit to stop his 4/4 mutavaults (double MoW). G3 I mapped out Tron on T3, played oblivion stone - into TKS into ulamog. I exiled his library in a couple of turns.
Some thoughts after the first two weeks of testing:
1: Oblivion Stone is fantastic and I am always happy to see it. Even when I don't have Tron (can usually apply a lot of pressure after blowing it).
2: It's a lot more consistent than the previous Eldrazi decks. Tron is a very rewarding plan B.
3: I absolutely do not want to splash a colour. I want to play lands that either tap for double mana immediately (temple) or will soon (tron) in the first turn. I do not want to play a colour-land to play ancient stirrings on T1 because that means Tron can happen on T4 at the earliest. And unlike GR tron we don't really have any "I win" cards besides ulamog so a T4 tron is not something I want to tune for.
4: 3 relics is one too many.
5: If I am to continue playing Conduit of Ruin, it needs to have at least one other target than Ulamog. I'm thinking Bane of Bala Ged could be it. It's easy to cast, and although it is within dismember range, that means the opponent will be forced to let Conduit stay alive. But I'm leaning more toward removing Conduit and Ulamog for one more Mimic and some more Endbringers. I will test it and report.
6: Mimic can still do broken things and I think a playset is correct for the colourless aggro version.
7: Blinkmoth over Ghost Quarter was correct. The deck is too greedy to afford to let go of a land against anything but Tron and Blinkmoth can be a very useful blocker.
But I'm starting to dislike ulamog and his little tutor friend, They are slow and unreliable.
I'm going to test blinkmoth nexus instead of ghost quarter today. We're pretty mana greedy and I don't really expect Tron to be a major force going forward.
Has anybody tested against Scapeshift? I feel like we may have a questionable matchup and it seems to be on the rise. I'm running just one warping wail in the board at the moment which seems pretty fragile. Unfortunately nobody local plays scapeshift and I don't have the deck online.
I'm thinking of dropping the sowers (only useful for ulamog ramp anyway) to go up to 3 or 4 Conduit. That would allow me to drop to 1 ulamog and add a breaker of armies and void winnower or something. And a chalice + void winnower combination from the sideboard sounds like it could be pretty brutal so I'm going to test that.
I'm also considering switching one or two ghost quarters for cavern of souls because I think we might see some more remands and mana leaks in the coming weeks because of ancestral visions.
I tested 200 hands using an online deck generator and the deck seems pretty much exactly as consistent as the old non-tron deck. It fizzled on T3 (just 3 mana) about 20% of time including mulligans). Also it seems mulliganing to 5 is a mistake if you have a tron piece + map. Mulliganing to 6 is very often a good idea but 5 rarely works. It's better to hope for assembling tron on T4/5 than having a hand full of urborgs and ulamogs.
2 Conduit of Ruin
2 Eldrazi Mimic
4 Endless One
4 Matter Reshaper
2 Oblivion Sower
4 Reality Smasher
4 Thought-Knot Seer
2 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
Spells
4 Dismember
4 Oblivion Stone
4 Expedition Map
4 Ghost Quarter
4 Eldrazi Temple
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Urza's Mine
4 Urza's Power Plant
4 Urza's Tower
2 Wastes
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Gut Shot
2 Pithing Needle
3 Ratchet Bomb
3 Relic of Progenitus