New crab would be borderline at U, but at 1U it feels like it's just not good enough to make enough of an impact. Also, with Crab you have to run fetchlands, which do double duty. With fetchlands and the new guy, you're relying on basics only, which really hurts your deck being able to fetch shocklands. 1U and mill 4 on snow permanent might have been enough too, but it's borderline.
I have a similar build. I may try yours out for a spin. I think the Orbs are replaceable though. The deck functions so fast that Orb doesn't quite pay off as much and I think you can make room for some other cards. I'm curious why no Mission Briefing since it works so well with the Archive Traps. I also think 4 Merchant Scroll is a bit much. I would probably try 2-3 Mission Briefing and 2-3 Thought Scour and see how that works.
This needs to be an Instant to be worth it, I think.
Why?
Because 4 mana cards that do basically nothing are not very good. 4 mana cards that let you hold up mana to play other spells if you need to, but then if not needed allow you to get back spells you want are very good.
Imagine if Collected Company was a sorcery and put the creatures in your hand. That's what this card is.
Crab is the best card in the deck. If there was another card called Hedron Lobster that did the exact same thing as Hedron Crab, I'd play 4 of each. Same for Hedron Shrimp. I'd play 4 of those too. You can never have enough Hedron Crabs.
Cards that cost 4 mana better say something like "Exile all creatures. For each creature exiled this way, it's controller puts the top 3 cards from their library into their graveyard" or I'm probably not even remotely interested.
Costs 3, hardly impacts the board, does nearly nothing to protect itself, does not further the mill plan very well. Slow and easy to remove. Does not seem like a good fit at all.
Meekstone would be another one that would really be a big help against aggro decks.
Propaganda is one that is probably too slow, but might be another good reprint for us (or blue based control/prison anyway)
I suspect that Counterspell might even be playable in Mill if we wanted to go into a more controlling shell, but who knows if the deck would feel too powered down to go that route, might have to rebuild the whole thing from that angle.
Jonas, quick notes on your notepad will help in this regard. Just indicate it is for later deck report purposes.
Definitely going to start noting this sort of thing in the future. Upon further reflection, I really should have shown my lifepad to the judge and pointed out that there's no way that Titan has been on the battlefield and able to attack for 2 turns, as evidenced by my life total changes... but I was so flustered by my opponent just bold faced lying to me and the judge like that (and in an event that is lauded for its friendly and community focused 'coming together for a great cause and playing magic to honor those we've lost' that someone would stoop to such disgusting levels)
Live and learn, but if I ever play that opponent again or see him paired vs any of my friends, I'm letting them know up front he's a cheater and they better watch him like a hawk.
They changed how remembering to pay for Pacts works. It's no longer a game loss when they draw their card. My strategy is very legal. I'm not required to remind my opponent about their triggers until it becomes clear they have forgotten them. Since they changed the way Pacts work for paying them, I have no way of knowing he forgot it until he uses his mana for something else. Once they use their mana for something else, they will not be able to back up and pay for the pact, which mean they lose.
I think I had a Watery Grave instead of the Swamp actually and didn't remember it correctly
Yeah, I think the policy is awful but the way they have written it make it so as a competitive player looking to use the rules toward your advantage, you have to basically do nothing until way later in the turn and then point it out when they can't pay for it because they paid mana for casting other spells. A real stupid way of doing things, and I made sure the judge that was called for my issue was aware that this rule is awful and specifically with Mill decks and decks that use the graveyard, it becomes nearly impossible to track what turn the pact was actually played by tracking the graveyard for spells played over the game and where the pact sits in the graveyard in relation to the other spells.
How the hell did you lose to Amulet AND Tron?!?!?! The amulet matchup has been a landslide every time I played it. Damn, I'd be so mad too. Especially after beating both shadow and humans... You must have felt like it was your tournament. Pretty *****ty to run into the super low meta Sultai Reclamation.
Just read all the amulet matches... Sounds like you would have played it the same way I would have lol. A pact trigger is not something an opponent just forgets. I wonder how many other times this has happened to people. I think I remember an Amulet player missing a pact trigger on camera. Maybe it was the same guy you played?
I like adding the 3rd push to the main and was only different from you with playing the 3rd bridge in the side and a couple different sideboard cards but I'm sure it was essential to beating shadow and humans so maybe I'm wrong with that. Nice report.
Did the extra Echoing Truth pay off for you? I've always felt comfortable with 2 sideboard slots devoted to non creature permanent removal in the sideboard, especially with Mission Briefing in the deck.
I never cast the Echoing Truth, but I did side it in a few times. I feel like it was important to try to have a better way of dealing with multiple permanents like Phoenix, Amalgams or Gurmag Anglers since Fatal Push is iffy against them.
something like this
4 Field of Ruin
4 Flooded Strand
4 Island
4 Tolaria West
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Seachrome Coast
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
1 Plains
Spells
4 Archive Trap
4 Mission Briefing
4 Narsett's Reversal
4 Path to Exile
4 Trapmaker's Snare
3 Oust
3 Thought Scour
4 Hedron Crab
4 Thing in the Ice
Enchantment
4 Fraying Sanity
4 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Rest in Peace
3 Stony Silence
2 Ravenous Trap
2 Timely Reinforcements
1 Detection Tower
Because 4 mana cards that do basically nothing are not very good. 4 mana cards that let you hold up mana to play other spells if you need to, but then if not needed allow you to get back spells you want are very good.
Imagine if Collected Company was a sorcery and put the creatures in your hand. That's what this card is.
This needs to be an Instant to be worth it, I think.
Still, probably worth testing as a 1 or 2 of, but at Sorcery speed, it's probably not playable
4 Hedron Crab
Lands
3 Island
2 Swamp
2 Darkslick Shores
4 Field of Ruin
2 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
2 Shelldock Isle
2 Watery Grave
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
Spells
3 Ensnaring Bridge
3 Mesmeric Orb
4 Archive Trap
2 Crypt Incursion
2 Fatal Push
3 Mission Briefing
1 Murderous Cut
3 Surgical Extraction
4 Visions of Beyond
2 Collective Brutality
4 Glimpse the Unthinkable
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Crypt Incursion
3 Extirpate
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
1 Collective Brutality
3 Damnation
2 Mind Funeral
2 Set Adrift
Meekstone would be another one that would really be a big help against aggro decks.
Propaganda is one that is probably too slow, but might be another good reprint for us (or blue based control/prison anyway)
I suspect that Counterspell might even be playable in Mill if we wanted to go into a more controlling shell, but who knows if the deck would feel too powered down to go that route, might have to rebuild the whole thing from that angle.
Definitely going to start noting this sort of thing in the future. Upon further reflection, I really should have shown my lifepad to the judge and pointed out that there's no way that Titan has been on the battlefield and able to attack for 2 turns, as evidenced by my life total changes... but I was so flustered by my opponent just bold faced lying to me and the judge like that (and in an event that is lauded for its friendly and community focused 'coming together for a great cause and playing magic to honor those we've lost' that someone would stoop to such disgusting levels)
Live and learn, but if I ever play that opponent again or see him paired vs any of my friends, I'm letting them know up front he's a cheater and they better watch him like a hawk.
Yeah, I think the policy is awful but the way they have written it make it so as a competitive player looking to use the rules toward your advantage, you have to basically do nothing until way later in the turn and then point it out when they can't pay for it because they paid mana for casting other spells. A real stupid way of doing things, and I made sure the judge that was called for my issue was aware that this rule is awful and specifically with Mill decks and decks that use the graveyard, it becomes nearly impossible to track what turn the pact was actually played by tracking the graveyard for spells played over the game and where the pact sits in the graveyard in relation to the other spells.
I never cast the Echoing Truth, but I did side it in a few times. I feel like it was important to try to have a better way of dealing with multiple permanents like Phoenix, Amalgams or Gurmag Anglers since Fatal Push is iffy against them.