So you've got Delver, and you've got instants and sorceries galore, but how exactly to you plan to win? Just keep hitting with Delver as a 3/2? I think you need some pumps in there to speed things up. Mutagenic Growth can pump your delver, as can Distortion Strike, slightly.
Stitched Drake might be a little slow for this deck. He needs creatures to be dead already, which means that unless you lose a Delver or a Faerie, he'll be dead in your hand. I might bring him down to 2 and find 2 of another critter to throw in.
Also you can afford to have a set of Bonesplitters, not every card has to be an instant/sorcery or creature. You want pumps to speed the game up.
Also, I don't think the Snaps are necessary. I like that Vapor Snag is a bounce with an added ping. Every point of life counts, though I guess most people like saying only the last point of life counts, but that's only referring to yourself. When trying to win, every point of life from your opponent counts.
STOP THE PRESS! I was just shuffling through a stack of cards on my shelf and realized Ulamog's Crusher is common!! Why didn't anyone tell me this? That's my win con right there. Dropping in two of him in place of Cloud of Faeries. The lack of ramp should be find, I'll just keep the board locked till I have 8 lands, then drop a Crushers and it should be the end of the game; right? RIGHT? I made the change to my deck in the above post.
So I went and did something sort of rash; I realized I needed a cheap blink, which would be Cloudshift, so I splashed a little white in, and added 2 Oblivion Rings as well, and it seems to run smoother.
Frankly Brainstorm wasn't doing it for me, since I need to be able to dig through my deck and shape my hand, not just rearrange it, I swapped them out for Preordain. Threw in 2 Halimar Depths and Sage of Epityr to set up the draws.
I had 2 guys drop games on me simply because I had the board grid locked, and that was even without drawing into Reality Acid.
I added 2 Ulamog's Crusher for a possible win con. Just keep the board gridlocked till you have 8 lands and draw a crusher. Hopefully the rest will work itself out.
Not sure if anyone here listens to the Aggro/Experimental/hip-hop group, Death Grips, but their drummer, Zack Hill, has mentioned in a few interviews how his younger brother plays Magic and the group has based their own relationship with the music industry as running a blue control deck (Article Below): http://www.spin.com/articles/death-grips-artist-year-2012-no-love-deep-web?page=3
Thanks for the tips, Gang. I removed Shrieking Drake cuz I've got enough bounce effects already and it only affects my 2 other dudes, added Brainstorm and Snap. I'll see how it goes with Merfolk Thaumaturgist, if it's too slow, then yeah, maybe I will upgrade to Delver, this is Pauper afterall - gotta work with the best we got - but I've sort of sworn off throwing Delver into any other decks for a while cuz I got addicted to his versatility (I play lots of aggro decks with pump spells).
I'll let you know how it plays soon as I run a few tests on Cockatrice. I think the challenge will just be managing to get a Reality Acid into my hand. Hopefully Brainstorm and 2 Preordains will help with that.
UPDATE: After playing against two pauper decks online, I can confirm this: The deck is useless against Pauper Hexproof decks, for obvious reasons, and over-all pretty slow. The first deck was a Hexproof Weenie deck, and the second was your typical GU Weenie Infect. I was able to hold off the infect assaults for a little while, but it was only a matter of time until I was in topdeck mode and drew flat. Obviously this deck is by no means optimal, but I'm going to continue to tweak it until I can get something that works consistently. I think I need more fluid synergy between the cards, sometimes I'm stuck with a hand that requires too many loose ends to be put in place before it can click. I'm going to tone down the land count and add some more counters.
So I've never paid much mind to the Pauper format until I decided to set about making a deck that revolved around Reality Acid and realized all the necessary cards were common. I've got a rough frame of 54 cards, with lands, that could use some tweaking, but at the moment they're all designed to make Reality Acid work, which cripples my opponent, but doesn't beat him/her. So I could use some help figuring out how to actually win.
@Gaka - I have a unique Norin art for sale. I wouldn't belittle it with adjectives like "collectible", but I can say the monetaryvalue will go up after I sell it. It's hard to tell that it's Norin, but I swear he's hiding amongst the crayon and magic markers.
can I see it? I love seeing altered Norins. I'm currenlty trying to figure out how to best alter mine. Design wise, not materials.
You could also run a set of Renegade Doppelgangers, if you have 2 out when you play the Dreadnought you just sac one and suddenly you have 2 Dreadnoughts, one of them already ready to attack.
Thanks for the suggestions, so if I were to splash, what would you guys suggest for lands? Right now I'm running 7 Forest, 7 Plains, 2 Ancient Ziggurats and 4 Brushlands. I don't have a broad knowledge of lands, I do have some playsets of the Vivids. Or I could just play Ruthless Invasion. Any suggestions?
they use to have some kind of program just for military people if i'm not mistaken... that was way back though, i remember seeing something about it in an inquest from back in like 97/98 i think.
That Inquest reference totally rings a bell; I was wondering why I was thinking I had heard about this before.
"Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of the women."
- Keldon Warlord, right? Kidding, what is the most Arnold creature?
Earthcraft is pretty pricy, but I'd love to make a squirrel deck myself. In fact, most of the squirrel related cards are bank. It's kinda annoying, for such little critters.
In a casual format, how would something like Clock of Omens or voltaic key word with an artifact land and squirrel's nest? are there alternatives?
Is there a means to give vanilla creatures evasion without them losing Muraganda Petroglyphs' bonus?
Currently I'm just using Taunting Elf. I'm playing GW, but I've thought about splashing blue to run Shadow Rift and cast it on my opponent's creatures.
Stitched Drake might be a little slow for this deck. He needs creatures to be dead already, which means that unless you lose a Delver or a Faerie, he'll be dead in your hand. I might bring him down to 2 and find 2 of another critter to throw in.
Also you can afford to have a set of Bonesplitters, not every card has to be an instant/sorcery or creature. You want pumps to speed the game up.
Also, I don't think the Snaps are necessary. I like that Vapor Snag is a bounce with an added ping. Every point of life counts, though I guess most people like saying only the last point of life counts, but that's only referring to yourself. When trying to win, every point of life from your opponent counts.
Frankly Brainstorm wasn't doing it for me, since I need to be able to dig through my deck and shape my hand, not just rearrange it, I swapped them out for Preordain. Threw in 2 Halimar Depths and Sage of Epityr to set up the draws.
I had 2 guys drop games on me simply because I had the board grid locked, and that was even without drawing into Reality Acid.
I added 2 Ulamog's Crusher for a possible win con. Just keep the board gridlocked till you have 8 lands and draw a crusher. Hopefully the rest will work itself out.
Full Deck v.3
2 Ulamog's Crusher
4 Dream Stalker
2 Sage of Epityr
4 Reality Acid
4 Cloudshift
4 Counterspell
2 Ghostly Flicker
4 Rescue
4 Snap
4 Preordain
2 Halimar Depths
12 Island
4 Plains
http://www.spin.com/articles/death-grips-artist-year-2012-no-love-deep-web?page=3
I'll let you know how it plays soon as I run a few tests on Cockatrice. I think the challenge will just be managing to get a Reality Acid into my hand. Hopefully Brainstorm and 2 Preordains will help with that.
UPDATE: After playing against two pauper decks online, I can confirm this: The deck is useless against Pauper Hexproof decks, for obvious reasons, and over-all pretty slow. The first deck was a Hexproof Weenie deck, and the second was your typical GU Weenie Infect. I was able to hold off the infect assaults for a little while, but it was only a matter of time until I was in topdeck mode and drew flat. Obviously this deck is by no means optimal, but I'm going to continue to tweak it until I can get something that works consistently. I think I need more fluid synergy between the cards, sometimes I'm stuck with a hand that requires too many loose ends to be put in place before it can click. I'm going to tone down the land count and add some more counters.
EDIT: Full Deck v.2
4 Dream Stalker
3 Merfolk Thaumaturgist
4 Brainstorm
4 Rescue
4 Counterspell
4 Ghostly Flicker
4 Snap
4 Mana Leak
Not sure if it'll be mentioned or not, but I'd like to stay away from Delver of Secrets
can I see it? I love seeing altered Norins. I'm currenlty trying to figure out how to best alter mine. Design wise, not materials.
That Inquest reference totally rings a bell; I was wondering why I was thinking I had heard about this before.
- Keldon Warlord, right? Kidding, what is the most Arnold creature?
Earthcraft is pretty pricy, but I'd love to make a squirrel deck myself. In fact, most of the squirrel related cards are bank. It's kinda annoying, for such little critters.
In a casual format, how would something like Clock of Omens or voltaic key word with an artifact land and squirrel's nest? are there alternatives?
Currently I'm just using Taunting Elf. I'm playing GW, but I've thought about splashing blue to run Shadow Rift and cast it on my opponent's creatures.