Well, I was able to test 2 games against Gr Tron last night.
Game 1: I misplayed and shipped two Sieges to the bottom of the deck. I fizzled and he cast an Emrakul.
Game 2: I didn't fizzle. It was awful. I chained xtra turns and Exhaustion through my deck 3x until I was able to -10 Jace Beleren twice. Thankfully he had Emrakul in his hand. The game took ~20-30 minutes (95% of that being my turns). I played fairly quickly but it was miserable for both of us. I need a faster win condition.
This isnt viable. As Shadowgripper is saying, Howling Mine lays down the house. Only 7 mines is a solid way to ensure, that you can't keep a consistent warp. And when 3 of them is Sieges, it definately won't do. You wouldnt like to play Siege on dragons in your list, as there isnt much to protect. A general fact: Don't let your guard down when you play the Elixir. Tap them out and all that - If they handdirupt you however, you are gonna have a bad time. Thats the problem with the sole win-con.
For all of you, talking about Trickbind - Its cool, but its not that cool. As for twin, it might delay them with 1 turn: But honestly, how many times does a twin deck plays w/o countermana up? Yeah, Trickbind resolves, but then they might aswell just counter your warp. I didn't find Trickbind good enought versus Twin. It was cool against pod, however.
Do you think that I should cut cryptic from the main to make room for more mines?
In gold-fishing a couple of games, I found that this was awful to draw when I was going off and would rather be drowsing.
This comes down to a fundamental difference of playing the combo and control versions. You need a big pile of Mines to make the combo happen, as you're trying to perpetually chain Time Warps. The control version gets around this because it only takes a few to steal the game, so it doesn't necessarily need to take perpetual extra turns. If your plan is to play combo, you're probably looking at 9 as a minimum, no more than two of which can be Monastery Siege.
Also, while your mileage may vary on this, my experience has been that Tectonic Edge and Ghost Quarter are very bad in this deck. Once we are comboing off, we generally don't care about our opponent's board state. When these lands are sacrificed, it makes reaching that point take one more turn. Generally, your best land hate is going to be Spreading Seas, and it's hard to even recommend that as the deck you're going to use it against primarily, Tron, will just wipe it off the board with Oblivion Stone. You're going to get a lot more mileage from Mutavault, Inkmoth Nexus, or just good old Islands.
Thank you for the insight. I had not thoroughly considered the differences in the support cards between Time Attack and Taking Turns.
I own or have acquired most of the cards for several of the Mono-U builds (apart from 2 Mutavault). I think that the Attack build is what I will most likely play in the end, but i thought that it might be helpful to get a little taste of each (including Extraplanar Lens + Emmy).
This isnt viable. As Shadowgripper is saying, Howling Mine lays down the house. Only 7 mines is a solid way to ensure, that you can't keep a consistent warp. And when 3 of them is Sieges, it definately won't do. You wouldnt like to play Siege on dragons in your list, as there isnt much to protect. A general fact: Don't let your guard down when you play the Elixir. Tap them out and all that - If they handdirupt you however, you are gonna have a bad time. Thats the problem with the sole win-con.
For all of you, talking about Trickbind - Its cool, but its not that cool. As for twin, it might delay them with 1 turn: But honestly, how many times does a twin deck plays w/o countermana up? Yeah, Trickbind resolves, but then they might aswell just counter your warp. I didn't find Trickbind good enought versus Twin. It was cool against pod, however.
Do you think that I should cut cryptic from the main to make room for more mines?
In gold-fishing a couple of games, I found that this was awful to draw when I was going off and would rather be drowsing.
Does your meta leave you at a point where you basically give up every G1 against Burn? If so you may want to start maindecking those Redirects.
It might not be that warped. However, I can bet on playing at least 1 burn deck in a 16-man at my LGS. I have faced upwards of 3 in a 16-man. The next most commonly occurring deck would be Twin. Because of that, I might consider running 2 Spellskites in the maindeck.
Aside from Emrakul, which can't be countered, wouldn't you rather just counter the source of the problem instead? If my choice is to board in Trickbind or Mana Leak, I'd rather have the Leaks.
Never forget that Trickbind can hit a storm and the Flying Spaghetti Monster's shuffle trigger if they somehow discard (this could come up in the combo build). 'True' counters might be a better choice for the board, I just wanted to run the idea and versatility of Trickbind out there.
The final pieces of my maindeck arrived this afternoon 2x Temporal Mastery and 2x Time Warp. My intention is to test the use of Trickbind during a group session on Wednesday or Thursday.
My SB is still incomplete, so it may some time before I have a tournament report.
It seems that the Commandeer is only better than Redirect in that it hits Karn Liberated and Slaughter Games. I don't think that I would board it in against anything else. Game 2 versus Gr Tron and Game 3 versus Jund (or any deck that i see Slaughter Games in Game 2).
Twin: Is Trickbind strong enough here? I feel that this would have more usage throughout other match-ups than Swan Song.
Infect: I have never considered the impact of Swan Song here. I planned on attacking this match-up with Boomerang.
I don't feel slaughter games is something I am going to worry about. There aren't enough decks in the format to utilize this card in their sideboard... plus I don't want to have sideboard slots to beat another decks sideboard options. That's over doing it.
As for Twin and Trickbind, you don't need sideboard slots against Twin. The match-up is already really good. What other deck will Trickbind seriously hinder that Swan Song can't play a part in? Song helps against Scapeshift as well, and Infect, and even Merfolk to help squeeze through against their countermagic.
Regarding Serum Visions and Telling Time
My concern is consistency. I would think that being able to control your draws would help to compensate for the added diversity in your spells and manabase. Consider the benefit of Serum Visions in both setting up a miracle and flipping a delver. Since you are only running 3 Mana Leak for permission, you will see the most benefit from the Visions instead of the Telling Time. I encourage you to test several games with 4 visions in the maindeck.
Regarding Explore
Maybe I am misunderstanding the use of Explore. What turn/s do you typically want to cast this?
I thought that hitting this on turn 2 was ideal. Maybe is it better later in the game... What is the thought on the ideal turn for explore?
If you are playing with Remands then the Tron matchup is quite easy, the same applies to the Twin matchup. The reason for this is these decks try to go off around turn 3 or 4 and we can use Remand + Gigadrowse to stall long enough without the aggro clock in our face.
To add to this, Commandeer was meant for nothing more than an auto-win against tron. While you did list legal choices in other matchups, the card disadvantage for the card gained is not worth it. I may end up swapping this out for a third Font of Mythos, as I need better answers to Abzan and Font doesn't get hit by Abrupt Decay.
Usefulness of Commandeer in other match-ups:
Abzan: Taking an Inquisition of Kozilek serves no purpose, you exhaust 3 cards to take one of theirs (which they don't really care about usually). Taking Liliana of the Veil is okay, however you aren't exactly getting much value from +1 her like Abzan does, and if they have Lingering Souls, which most lists do, she's is not worth the 3-for-1 exchange. Taking Abrupt Decay is the really only valid point here, but seeing as it's not very backbreaking on them I don't see the worth in doing so. Considering the effect of stealing karn from a tron player with exhaustion/gigadrowse/remand backup; the game ends. Now compare to stealing abrupt decay.
Tron: Taking a Karn Liberated is the primary purpose of Commandeer, as this will 99% of the time win you the game. They do have outs, like slamming the tron land you exiled with Karn and playing another to eat yours, or playing Beast Within. Taking an Ugin, the Spirit Dragon or Mindslaver is also worthwhile, though Ugin doesn't really hurt us that much. Taking anything else just doesn't make any sense when you can just wait and steal their big threat.
Twin: I would not bring it in against twin, as there's actually nothing to steal. Gaining control of Splinter Twin aura doesn't do anything, as you have to have another target to throw it on and chances are there won't be any. At best, Commandeer works as a free (pitching 2 cards) counterspell. The only thing I would bring in against Twin is the Swan Song, you don't need anything else for this matchup.
Affinity: Not useful.
Infect: Again, not useful. It's possible they don't have any other creatures for you to Commandeer a pump spell away from their attacker, so I wouldn't risk it. Spellskite and Swan Song are better here.
Burn: It may be correct to board this in against burn, especially on the draw. Though I'd much rather lean on Sun Droplet, Redirect, and Monastery Siege.
Amulet Bloom: Literally useless here. Only targets are Serum Visions, Ancient Stirrings, Summer Bloom, Hive Mind, and any of the pacts. The first three are not worth the card disadvantage on our part. Taking Hive Mind does nothing as it's a symmetrical effect. Stealing pacts is pointless cause now we have to pay for them; also can't steal them while Hive Mind is in play because it copies our Commandeer.
Merfolk: Not useful.
B/W Tokens: Not useful.
Zoo: Not useful.
Living End: Not useful. Won't actually stop the cascade trigger.
Storm: Might be worth it as you can hit a a crucial mana ramp spell or Past in Flames.
It seems that the Commandeer is only better than Redirect in that it hits Karn Liberated and Slaughter Games. I don't think that I would board it in against anything else. Game 2 versus Gr Tron and Game 3 versus Jund (or any deck that i see Slaughter Games in Game 2).
I took this deck to a PPTQ and won 4 of 6 rounds. One round lost due to missing land drops (which is bound to happen). Other lost to Abzan who had it all. Won against Living End, Dredge, Splinter Twin, and Tron.
I would swap out 2 Cryptics and 1 Serum Visions for 3 Remand. Cryptic was fine but deck needs Remand somewhere. Spirit Guides where absolutely amazing.
Game 1: I misplayed and shipped two Sieges to the bottom of the deck. I fizzled and he cast an Emrakul.
Game 2: I didn't fizzle. It was awful. I chained xtra turns and Exhaustion through my deck 3x until I was able to -10 Jace Beleren twice. Thankfully he had Emrakul in his hand. The game took ~20-30 minutes (95% of that being my turns). I played fairly quickly but it was miserable for both of us. I need a faster win condition.
I own or have acquired most of the cards for several of the Mono-U builds (apart from 2 Mutavault). I think that the Attack build is what I will most likely play in the end, but i thought that it might be helpful to get a little taste of each (including Extraplanar Lens + Emmy).
In gold-fishing a couple of games, I found that this was awful to draw when I was going off and would rather be drowsing.
2 Tectonic Edge
22 Snow-Covered Island
Tempo
3 Remand
4 Gigadrowse
3 Exhaustion
Time Walk
4 Time Warp
4 Walk the Aeons
4 Temporal Mastery
3 Dictate of Kruphix
3 Monastery Siege
3 Serum Visions
3 Cryptic Command
Win-Con
1 Jace Beleren
1 Elixir of Immortality
2 Redirect
1 Commandeer
1 Laboratory Maniac
2 Trickbind
3 Hurkyl's Recall
3 Chalice of the Void
3 Negate
Never forget that Trickbind can hit a storm and the Flying Spaghetti Monster's shuffle trigger if they somehow discard (this could come up in the combo build). 'True' counters might be a better choice for the board, I just wanted to run the idea and versatility of Trickbind out there.
The final pieces of my maindeck arrived this afternoon 2x Temporal Mastery and 2x Time Warp. My intention is to test the use of Trickbind during a group session on Wednesday or Thursday.
My SB is still incomplete, so it may some time before I have a tournament report.
Trickbind counters Planeswalker abilities, Emrakul, the Aeons Torn's extra turn / annihilator, Batterskull's germ token, Kiki-jiki, Mirror Breaker, various etb triggers and at split second, it can't be countered.
Regarding Serum Visions and Telling Time
My concern is consistency. I would think that being able to control your draws would help to compensate for the added diversity in your spells and manabase. Consider the benefit of Serum Visions in both setting up a miracle and flipping a delver. Since you are only running 3 Mana Leak for permission, you will see the most benefit from the Visions instead of the Telling Time. I encourage you to test several games with 4 visions in the maindeck.
Regarding Explore
Maybe I am misunderstanding the use of Explore. What turn/s do you typically want to cast this?
I thought that hitting this on turn 2 was ideal. Maybe is it better later in the game... What is the thought on the ideal turn for explore?
I do see your point considering the differences in Redirect vs Commandeer.
I am considering a 2-1 SB split of Redirect-Commandeer.
Twin: Is Trickbind strong enough here? I feel that this would have more usage throughout other match-ups than Swan Song.
Infect: I have never considered the impact of Swan Song here. I planned on attacking this match-up with Boomerang.
Looking forward to your testing results.
How did your games against Tron and Twin play out? How favored is this build of Taking turns vs Tron and Twin?