The lands are mostly basic because nonbasics are pretty expensive usually (and really, the final build will probably be 2 more islands and 2 more plains.) I splash white here for Sun Titan and Oblivion Ring, using Sun Titan as a powerful finisher who can get back almost every permanent from the deck, and Oblivion Ring as all purpose removal. Azure Mage seems like it might be useful for drawing cards during turns where you have nothing better to do, and I guess the rest is pretty self-explanatory.
I'd say -3 Stoic Rebuttal for +3 Spell Pierce. Sweepers suck. I also think Venser, the Sojourner can work in a U/W aggro list for making creatures unblockable.
I'd recommend +4 Adaptive Automaton for -3 Azure Mage, -1 Sun Titan. The deck needs the 3-drop creature for your curve, and let's face it, another Illusion Lord-pump is exactly what the deck needs (plus it gets hexproof from Mr. Unreal).
You can also probably drop a land (probably even two lands), seeing as Sun Titan's your only biggie. Plus I'd also drop all the Stoic Rebuttals for Spell Pierce, like Names recommended, or even Negates. Having your Lord of the Unreal killed is the biggest threat to the deck, seeing as it makes everything else hyper-fragile, and of course board wipes are a close second (if not first).
Other than that, I love the idea of an Illusion-based Aggro deck.
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Standard:XWX Tempered Steel
EDH: BR Bladewing the Risen (In Progress)
I'd say -3 Stoic Rebuttal for +3 Spell Pierce. Sweepers suck. I also think Venser, the Sojourner can work in a U/W aggro list for making creatures unblockable.
I was thinking about using Spell Pierce, but I wanted a good solid hard counter. Also, Spell Pierce is rotating out in a few months, but if I have extras I might keep them. I thought about Venser, but there's no way to reliably to use his +2 ability, since it'll kill half the creatures in the deck.
I'd recommend +4 Adaptive Automaton for -3 Azure Mage, -1 Sun Titan. The deck needs the 3-drop creature for your curve, and let's face it, another Illusion Lord-pump is exactly what the deck needs (plus it gets hexproof from Mr. Unreal).
You can also probably drop a land (probably even two lands), seeing as Sun Titan's your only biggie. Plus I'd also drop all the Stoic Rebuttals for Spell Pierce, like Names recommended, or even Negates. Having your Lord of the Unreal killed is the biggest threat to the deck, seeing as it makes everything else hyper-fragile, and of course board wipes are a close second (if not first).
Good suggestions. I'll probably drop two lands from this and throw in Negate for Rebuttal, since I am mostly worried about stopping non-creature spells like Board Sweeps and other big non-creature spells. I'll probably also use Adaptive Automation, but I'm not sure on removing the one Sun Titan.
A list like this doesn't need to worry that much about Hard counters.. if you are getting into that zone you have probably lost. Really you just want to make sure to keep off the sweepers(or planeswalkers) for a turn or 2. Having hard counters seem even more counter intuitive when you consider spot removal only has to target to kill so countering isn't going to even help.
While it's in the format I'd probably play Preordain over Ponder.
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Hard Counters are to make sure I have the ability to stop something like Consume the Meek and Black Sun's Zenith. I will probably wind up with Negate though, thanks for the suggestions!
Hard Counters are to make sure I have the ability to stop something like Consume the Meek and Black Sun's Zenith. I will probably wind up with Negate though, thanks for the suggestions!
That's what I mean.. if it's turn 7-8 and they are casting Consume the Meek.. You probably should have won by now. Realistically if you curve out as aggressively as you'd want to you aren't going to be able to leave those hard counters up whereas you could leave Spell Pierce up while still casting threats. If you aren't getting there by then, hard counters or not aren't going to save you anyway because you are getting to a zone where they can cast their sweeper and counter your counter anyway (if they can pay for Spell Pierce they can Mana Leak you right back). Their late game threats are better anyway so if you aren't getting there by that time, I think other elements need to be looked at.
If I had to play a 2 mana counterspell on top of Mana Leak, I'd play Unified Will in this list before Negate. It at'east hits everything hard. You intend to be ahead on creatures I gather. And against creature decks well Negate isn't going to be doing much(Either way you'd be bringing in the Removal like Celestial Purge, Condemn, Dismember etc from the board to replace some permission in these cases). I still think Spell Pierce was made for lists like this but if you don't like it there are options. If you drop the Sun Titans like suggested and still want hard counters Deprive is probably a better choice than Stoic Rebuttal since you can keep your curve down. Then again I'd probably run a split of Dismembers/O-Rings main just to fit curve(put the other O-Rings in the board), since having 1 more mana up is more likely than 3 and you don't need the versatility of O-Ring for all matchups.
Realistically I can see what led to a lot of these choices, which suggests the decks core isn't functioning as well as hoped. The aggro core of deck doesn't seem to have much business needing absolute answers like O-Ring or Recursion for that matter, but since it's getting to that point I'm gathering the deck isn't winning fast enough. It doesn't have the long game to take out control, but it should do very well against it off speed, similar with Valakut. If it isn't going the distance fast enough, you probably need to figure out how to speed it up or try a more dedicated control build.
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12 Island
9 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
21 Creatures
4 Phantasmal Bear
3 Phantasmal Drake
4 Phantasmal Image
4 Lord of the Unreal
3 Sun Titan
3 Azure Mage
4 Oblivion Ring
4 Mana Leak
3 Stoic Rebuttal
3 Ponder
The lands are mostly basic because nonbasics are pretty expensive usually (and really, the final build will probably be 2 more islands and 2 more plains.) I splash white here for Sun Titan and Oblivion Ring, using Sun Titan as a powerful finisher who can get back almost every permanent from the deck, and Oblivion Ring as all purpose removal. Azure Mage seems like it might be useful for drawing cards during turns where you have nothing better to do, and I guess the rest is pretty self-explanatory.
You can also probably drop a land (probably even two lands), seeing as Sun Titan's your only biggie. Plus I'd also drop all the Stoic Rebuttals for Spell Pierce, like Names recommended, or even Negates. Having your Lord of the Unreal killed is the biggest threat to the deck, seeing as it makes everything else hyper-fragile, and of course board wipes are a close second (if not first).
Other than that, I love the idea of an Illusion-based Aggro deck.
Custom sig by me. I do requests, if you're interested PM me.
Standard: XWX Tempered Steel
EDH: BR Bladewing the Risen (In Progress)
I was thinking about using Spell Pierce, but I wanted a good solid hard counter. Also, Spell Pierce is rotating out in a few months, but if I have extras I might keep them. I thought about Venser, but there's no way to reliably to use his +2 ability, since it'll kill half the creatures in the deck.
Good suggestions. I'll probably drop two lands from this and throw in Negate for Rebuttal, since I am mostly worried about stopping non-creature spells like Board Sweeps and other big non-creature spells. I'll probably also use Adaptive Automation, but I'm not sure on removing the one Sun Titan.
While it's in the format I'd probably play Preordain over Ponder.
GWU Knightfall Modern
UW Tempo Legacy
UGR Burning Wish Cobra Vintage
That's what I mean.. if it's turn 7-8 and they are casting Consume the Meek.. You probably should have won by now. Realistically if you curve out as aggressively as you'd want to you aren't going to be able to leave those hard counters up whereas you could leave Spell Pierce up while still casting threats. If you aren't getting there by then, hard counters or not aren't going to save you anyway because you are getting to a zone where they can cast their sweeper and counter your counter anyway (if they can pay for Spell Pierce they can Mana Leak you right back). Their late game threats are better anyway so if you aren't getting there by that time, I think other elements need to be looked at.
If I had to play a 2 mana counterspell on top of Mana Leak, I'd play Unified Will in this list before Negate. It at'east hits everything hard. You intend to be ahead on creatures I gather. And against creature decks well Negate isn't going to be doing much(Either way you'd be bringing in the Removal like Celestial Purge, Condemn, Dismember etc from the board to replace some permission in these cases). I still think Spell Pierce was made for lists like this but if you don't like it there are options. If you drop the Sun Titans like suggested and still want hard counters Deprive is probably a better choice than Stoic Rebuttal since you can keep your curve down. Then again I'd probably run a split of Dismembers/O-Rings main just to fit curve(put the other O-Rings in the board), since having 1 more mana up is more likely than 3 and you don't need the versatility of O-Ring for all matchups.
Realistically I can see what led to a lot of these choices, which suggests the decks core isn't functioning as well as hoped. The aggro core of deck doesn't seem to have much business needing absolute answers like O-Ring or Recursion for that matter, but since it's getting to that point I'm gathering the deck isn't winning fast enough. It doesn't have the long game to take out control, but it should do very well against it off speed, similar with Valakut. If it isn't going the distance fast enough, you probably need to figure out how to speed it up or try a more dedicated control build.
GWU Knightfall Modern
UW Tempo Legacy
UGR Burning Wish Cobra Vintage