This post has been a long time coming, and as such is rather lengthy. I’m not even sure what I’m trying to accomplish here. Maybe I just felt the need to present something as it is instead of reacting to someone else and pushing off from there. Maybe I just felt the need to ramble for a bit. But I’ll try to keep it on-topic to the subtopic of the subforum this is posted in, so hopefully something will be accomplished by the end of all this.
I’ve been playing Gifts Ungiven in Modern for as long as I've had the cards to play with it, and I’ve tuned it to face what amounts to a horrifically inbred metagame chock full of poor-man’s aggressive decks with a smattering of control and maybe a tempo deck or two thrown in for good measure. Certain questions such as “What happens when you don’t draw Gifts?” or “How do you beat <such and such card/deck>?” come up and I’ve always tried to provide the best answer I can. I don’t pretend to know everything, though, and sometimes the best answer I come up with is simply “Pray.” But “Pray” shouldn’t be an answer, especially with the swath of cards this deck has available to it.
Now I’ll be the first person to admit that I can be a bit of an ass when it comes to altering the cards I play with. I’ve generally held the belief that the modern metagame doesn’t actually change as fast as people say it does (and people already say it’s slow (relatively, of course)), that experience with a deck is better than playing the best deck in the room, and as a consequence of this I also believe that card choice shouldn’t be really affected by what you expect to see, but also personal preference. This is, of course, a rather naïve view of things, and it presents a reductive view of others’ opinions, but when working with seventy-five/seventy-six
Even so, with this large influx of new players discovering and exploring the play space that has been left out for them, it’s become a little bit hard to keep track of what opinions have and have not been expressed and/or discredited, which decklists have been promoted and whatnot. I will be cross-checking this with the past few pages of this thread, but please forgive me if I miss something.
II. For Reference:
This is the current iteration of my decklist:
DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards | |
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Creatures (10): 1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite 3 Kitchen Finks 2 Snapcaster Mage 3 Sylvan Caryatid 1 Thragtusk Instants (14): 3 Abrupt Decay 1 Abzan Charm 1 Esper Charm 4 Gifts Ungiven 1 Murderous Cut 2 Path to Exile 1 Slaughter Pact 1 Sultai Charm Planeswalkers (2): 2 Liliana of the Veil Sorceries (10): 1 Damnation 2 Inquisition of Kozilek 1 Life from the Loam 2 Lingering Souls 1 Raven's Crime 2 Thoughtseize 1 Unburial Rites Lands (24): 1 Bojuka Bog 1 Breeding Pool 1 Celestial Colonnade 2 Creeping Tar Pit 1 Forest 1 Ghost Quarter 1 Godless Shrine 1 Hallowed Fountain 1 Horizon Canopy 1 Island 1 Marsh Flats 1 Misty Rainforest 1 Murmuring Bosk 1 Overgrown Tomb 1 Plains 1 Polluted Delta 1 Stirring Wildwood 1 Swamp 1 Tectonic Edge 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 1 Verdant Catacombs 1 Watery Grave 1 Windswept Heath | Sideboard (15): 1 Batterskull 2 Celestial Purge 2 Duress 1 Extirpate 1 Sigarda, Host of Herons 2 Stony Silence 4 Sun Droplet 1 Surgical Extraction 1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang |
DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards | ||
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Lands (24): 1 Bojuka Bog 1 Breeding Pool 1 Celestial Colonnade 2 Creeping Tar Pit 1 Forest 1 Ghost Quarter 1 Godless Shrine 1 Hallowed Fountain 1 Horizon Canopy 1 Island 1 Marsh Flats 1 Misty Rainforest 1 Murmuring Bosk 1 Overgrown Tomb 1 Plains 1 Polluted Delta 1 Stirring Wildwood 1 Swamp 1 Tectonic Edge 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 1 Verdant Catacombs 1 Watery Grave 1 Windswept Heath | CMC = 0 (1): 1 Slaughter Pact CMC = 1 (7): 2 Inquisition of Kozilek 2 Path to Exile 1 Raven’s Crime 2 Thoughtseize CMC = 2 (9): 3 Abrupt Decay 1 Life from the Loam 2 Snapcaster Mage 3 Sylvan Caryatid CMC = 3 (10): 1 Abzan Charm 1 Esper Charm 3 Kitchen Finks 2 Liliana of the Veil 2 Lingering Souls 1 Sultai Charm CMC = 4 (5): 1 Damnation 4 Gifts Ungiven CMC = 5+ (4): 1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite 1 Murderous Cut 1 Thragtusk 1 Unburial Rites | Sideboard (15): 1 Batterskull 2 Celestial Purge 2 Duress 1 Extirpate 1 Sigarda, Host of Herons 2 Stony Silence 4 Sun Droplet 1 Surgical Extraction 1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang |
I always hesitate presenting this for multiple reasons, not the least of which is my disinterest in change and – by proxy – my disinterest in criticism. That in itself is admittedly a rather hypocritical statement given posts I’ve made in both the past as well as a good chunk of this one, but part of this attitude stems from disagreements I’ve had before about just how “greedy” a deck can be.
And that’s just my particular playstyle. I’ve accepted that all three charms in the list are three-colors and that playing any number of three- or even two-color cards is an inherently risky proposition. Indeed, the high number of three-drops can and sometimes has led to awkward moments on the draw where tapping out leads to disaster. This could be remedied by more instant-speed threats, but Vendilion Clique puts even more strain on an already incredibly stretched-out mana base, Spellstutter Sprite is… eh, and none of the other ones are of any note.
Despite all this, I like the charms for their versatility. Each mode of each charm has proven useful in some manner; even the seldom-used “Destroy target enchantment” and “Distribute two +1/+1 counters…” modes have their uses, and each of them has a mode that improves card quantity/quality. If I were to pick a favorite, it would be Esper Charm, because the “Discard two” option is surprisingly relevant against a large swath of the field.
The question is often brought up, “What if you don’t draw Gifts Ungiven?” and the answer has always been “Hold on a bit longer with the other 56 cards and try to draw it,” which, as many have pointed out, is a bad idea. Actual tutors for Gifts (Merchant Scroll, Mystical Teachings, etcetera) have been discarded as suboptimal due to just being air in the deck where there shouldn’t be any*. And that’s where I think this charm list excels: providing ways to find the titular spell of this deck without sacrificing versatility.
The creatures are both a concession to a budget and something of a burn-deterrent. The Kitchen Finks specifically, I would play Tarmogoyf – or at least try a version with them – if I had access to any, but Kitchen Finks does a lot of the same things while also being a two-for-one against cards not named Path to Exile or Electrolyze (or Slay, I suppose). I am of the opinion that the deck needs creatures and not counterspells, but that’s something I’ll follow up on in section three.
Scavenging Ooze, of course. It’s significantly weaker to removal, but has utility outside of attacking or blocking. I’ve only considered it offhand due to my mana requirements being a bit harder than most, but it is certainly an option.
Thragtusk is my secondary Unburial Rites target for the same reason that Kitchen Finks is the beater of choice: because Burn is a deck (more popular than ever thanks to its strong showing in D.C.), and something slow like this needs those sorts of answers. It is also a two-for-one when it matters. For similar reasons, I would consider Wurmcoil Engine, and if the world had a little less burn in it, I would be playing Grave Titan in a heartbeat.
Speaking of Unburial Rites, I currently don’t think I could cut Elesh Norn from the deck. She generates so many free wins, even sometimes in game ones where she should be boarded out. By herself, it’s a huge tempo swing and often puts the opponent on Path, Pulse or bust. With a manland, or Lingering spirits, it’s a two- or three-turn clock.
That doesn’t mean she shouldn’t ever be boarded out, though.
My mana-dork of choice is Sylvan Caryatid, primarily because it allows both a turn three Gifts as well as a manland or shockland tapped into three-drop, depending on the circumstances. The additional point of toughness and hexproof over the
Other than that, it’s a fairly standard midrange/control hybrid, with Lingering Souls and Lilianas and a swath of removal and a fistful of disruption. I’ve been largely happy with it, though the sideboard is a continuous work-in-progress (Spellskite is on my buy-list, for example). Sure, it’s almost greedy as Dante’s third circle, but it’s not so greedy that it falls on its face every other game.
Still gets wrecked by an unanswered Blood Moon though. Maybe we should work on that mono-Blue list.
*Only Merchant Scroll was ever discussed (and even then in only two or three posts nine months ago), but I’m working under the assumption that Mystical Teachings would therefore be similarly useless by way of costing four mana.
**Kidding! Please don’t kill me.
III. Problems:
Answers in the current Modern format are bad.
Well…
Reactive answers in the current Modern format are bad. It pains me to admit it, but it’s true. There’s so much proactivity in the format that any attempt at slowing the game down turns into the equivalent of pushing against a runaway train to try and keep it from going off the rails. With such a high power level, a lot of cards played these days turn into either “must deal with” for the control player in the matchup, or “must push through” for the beatdown†.
Countering a spell is no longer a stabilizing play, because the decks that want to play counterspells are unable to further their own gameplan in any sort of efficient manner, which in turn allows the beatdown player time to rebuild and press forwards.
If I were to play a counterspell, it would be Remand because it comes the closest to furthering our gameplan while also providing something equivalent to a swing in tempo. But I don’t, because what do you cut? Even with a list where three to four cards can’t be framed as “Limited all-star, Modern Jank,” it’s difficult to produce a list that pushes for the exact same game against decks with spells that normally necessitate a counter.
This gets even worse with the realization that the “fairer” threats are twofold: a horde of 1/1 flyers, or a series of 4/5s of varying utility. Both of these require different answers, most of which can’t merely be solved by a single card. The best card currently able to fight through Lingering Souls is Lingering Souls, while Siege Rhino can only truly be matched in parity by another Siege Rhino. Sure, decks can be designed to fight through both of these, like multiple lists in this topic, but the problem is just the variety of the threat. Cards like Golgari Charm and Darkblast can easily deal with tiny 1/1s, but fare poorly against, say Tasigur. Path to Exile and Murderous Cut can do work against Siege Rhino and its ilk, but those aren’t good answers to a Lingering Souls.
So where does that leave us? Maelstrom Pulse‡, and Damnation, which I’m always surprised I don’t see more of. They answer everything (outside maybe Keranos) as efficiently one can hope for. They’re not perfect, (though Snapcaster // Pusle // Damnation // Removal Spell is one spicy pile) but in this sort of metagame, they’re what’s left.
I suppose I can sort of understand where these misplaced spells went. Besides Midrange and its ilk of sub-strategies, the rest of the format has shaken itself into primarily decks that would rather disregard their opponent entirely‡†. Beating those sorts of decks with this sort of deck requires forcing interaction on them, and neither Pulse nor Damnation can do that.
Though perhaps what the deck truly needs is five or more copies of Lingering Souls. Those things are everywhere.
†This isn’t the same as the “sideboard full of hate” that’s currently being written about by higher-level players and also irrelevant to this particular post/ramble.
‡No, I’m not currently playing Pulse in my seventy-five. Doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be.
‡†This was written before Grand Prix Vancouver, which may present an entirely different metagame set, though I have little doubt that the core tenet will remain the same.
IV. Alternatives
Way back when Wild Nacatl ruled the format and Treasure Cruise was only the faintest whisper in R&D’s collective consciousness, Douglas Linn posted an oft linked-to-by-yours-truly article detailing the prototype of a sort of tap-out control-style deck, using Coalition Relic as a means to ramp from three to six, and most every other card was a two-for-one in some way or another. For the link shy, the list looks like this:
DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards | ||
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Artifacts (5): 1 Batterskull 4 Coalition Relic Creatures (11): 1 Godo, Bandit Warlord 2 Mulldrifter 2 Shriekmaw 3 Snapcaster Mage 1 Vendilion Clique 1 Withered Wretch 1 Wurmcoil Engine Instants (11): 1 Doom Blade 3 Gifts Ungiven 4 Lightning Bolt 3 Mana Leak Sorceries (8): 1 Cruel Ultimatum 1 Damnation 1 Firespout 1 Life from the Loam 1 Maelstrom Pulse 1 Raven’s Crime 2 Rise // Fall | Land (25): 2 Blood Crypt 1 Breeding Pool 1 City of Brass 1 Darkslick Shores 1 Dragonskull Summit 2 Flooded Grove 1 Forest 1 Graven Cairns 1 Rakdos Carnarium 3 Reflecting Pool 2 Sunken Ruins 1 Swamp 1 Twilight Mire 1 Urza’s Factory 4 Verdant Catacombs 2 Watery Grave | Sideboard (15): 1 Ancient Grudge 1 Creeping Corrosion 1 Firespout 1 Flashfreeze 1 Nature’s Claim 1 Negate 1 Nihil Spellbomb 1 Obstinate Baloth 1 Seal of Primordium 1 Slay 4 Tarmogoyf 1 Venser’s Journal |
DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards | ||
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Land (25): 2 Blood Crypt 1 Breeding Pool 1 City of Brass 1 Darkslick Shores 1 Dragonskull Summit 2 Flooded Grove 1 Forest 1 Graven Cairns 1 Rakdos Carnarium 3 Reflecting Pool 2 Sunken Ruins 1 Swamp 1 Twilight Mire 1 Urza’s Factory 4 Verdant Catacombs 2 Watery Grave CMC = 1 (5): 4 Lightning Bolt 1 Raven’s Crime | CMC = 2 (11): 1 Doom Blade 1 Life from the Loam 3 Mana Leak 2 Rise // Fall 3 Snapcaster Mage 1 Withered Wretch CMC = 3 (7): 4 Coalition Relic 1 Firespout 1 Maelstrom Pulse 1 Vendilion Clique CMC = 4 (4): 1 Damnation 3 Gifts Ungiven CMC = 5+ (8): 1 Batterskull 1 Cruel Ultimatum 1 Godo, Bandit Warlord 2 Mulldrifter 2 Shriekmaw 1 Wurmcoil Engine | Sideboard (15): 1 Ancient Grudge 1 Creeping Corrosion 1 Firespout 1 Flashfreeze 1 Nature’s Claim 1 Negate 1 Nihil Spellbomb 1 Obstinate Baloth 1 Seal of Primordium 1 Slay 4 Tarmogoyf 1 Venser’s Journal |
What a greedy deck! – Douglas Linn, 2012
A lot of the card choices are a product of the times. Graveyard-centric decks were more prevalent, Liliana of the Veil was still an odd duck struggling to see any play, and Storm could still play Seething Song. Heck, in the article, Doug mentions that his one-of kill spell, Doom Blade saw play over Go for the Throat and Smother because “sometimes, you must kill Frogmite.”
Other cards aren’t mentioned or played around because they weren’t printed yet. I tried to compile a list of some of the more obvious ones, but I may have missed a few:
- Abrupt Decay
Anger of the Gods (less relevant with Birthing Pod’s disappearance, but still noteworthy)
Any number of relevant charms
Keranos, God of Storms
Lingering Souls
Murderous Cut
Onslaught Fetchlands
Restoration Angel
Scavenging Ooze
Siege Rhino
Tasigur, the Golden Fang
The quartet of Coalition Relic means that Blood Moon doesn’t matter as much, while also allowing the high number of five- and six-drops to be played on the crucial turn four. Of course, the introduction of Abrupt Decay makes this card worse, especially in a deck with fewer targets in general, but
Dedicated Gifts piles are pushed to the sideline; the only one featured in the original build is Loam/Crime. I suppose Snapcaster // Rise // Fall // X // X can be construed as a “dedicated pile,” but really it’s casting Gifts for cards you, at some point during the game, will probably want to cast. In the end, it’s just a matter of getting what you need from your deck, whether that’s bombs to get back with Rise, removal to get back with Snapcaster, or even a mix of cards to deal with the grind. In my opinion, this style should be more able to get through a Aven Mindcensor than any other.
Speaking of Rise // Fall, though, that card has continually proven to be nuts. Whether it’s rebuying Snapcaster Mages and evoked Mulldrifters on a slow board or Hymn to Touraching a combo player, it is always semi-relevant. It’s less good now with more enter the battlefield effects (Rhino, namely), but not strictly unplayable and fills a niche this deck needs.
The strategy of the deck overall, therefore, is to one-for-one until you two-for-one, at which point it is possible to chain value together until the opponent is buried in it. Being grindy works against just about every deck but Burn, the various uninteractive creature strategies, and the faster Tron versions, which is where the sideboard comes into play.
The 2012 sideboard is a mess (Venser’s Journal***? Really?) though it is mostly designed to beat the aggressive and combo decks of its day, with cards like Nihil Spellbomb and some extra counterspells to help with disruption, and Tarmogoyfs to accelerate the clock. This is alongside specific pieces of hate for decks of the 2012 metagame which don’t really need comment (though it has been mentioned that Slay might be good enough again).
I’ve always wanted to brew a list similar to the one presented here, because a deck chock to the brim with two-for-ones has always seemed like the best way to grind out the game. But the overlying question, especially with Abrupt Decay so pervasive in Modern, is this:
Is it worth it to discount everything White has to offer – most notably cards like Lingering Souls, Unburial Rites, and Path to Exile – and instead rely on haymakers like Godo, Bandit Warlord, Wurmcoil Engine and Cruel Ultimatum? And is Coalition Relic – a permanent of casting cost three – the best way to go about this?
The important thing to note is that each of these cards solves – or partially solves – the Souls/Rhino problem nicely, either by presenting 6-7 lifelink power and toughness, or a potential eight-for-one while also providing a sizable life swing. Each of these cards is a must-answer, and a large portion of current removal doesn’t work on a one-for-one basis.
With that in mind, here’s what I’m currently testing on Cockatrice:
DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards | ||
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Ariftacts (5): 1 Batterskull 4 Coalition Relic Creatures (9): 1 Godo, Bandit Warlord 2 Mulldrifter 1 Shriekmaw 3 Snapcaster Mage 1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang 1 Wurmcoil Engine Instants (13): 3 Gifts Ungiven 4 Lightning Bolt 3 Mana Leak 1 Murderous Cut 1 Sultai Charm 1 Thirst for Knowledge Sorceries (8): 1 Cruel Ultimatum 1 Damnation 1 Life from the Loam 2 Maelstrom Pulse 1 Raven’s Crime 2 Rise // Fall | Lands (25): 1 Blackcleave Cliffs 2 Blood Crypt 1 Breeding Pool 1 Darkslick Shores 1 Desolate Lighthouse 2 Flooded Grove 1 Forest 1 Graven Cairns 1 Mana Confluence 1 Overgrown Tomb 3 Polluted Delta 2 Sunken Ruins 1 Swamp 1 Twilight Mire 4 Verdant Catacombs 2 Watery Grave | Sideboard (15): 1 Abrupt Decay 1 Ancient Grudge 1 Firespout 1 Flashfreeze 2 Keranos, God of Storms 1 Negate 1 Shatterstorm 1 Slay 2 Spellskite 4 Tarmogoyf |
DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards | ||
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Lands (25): 1 Blackcleave Cliffs 2 Blood Crypt 1 Breeding Pool 1 Darkslick Shores 1 Desolate Lighthouse 2 Flooded Grove 1 Forest 1 Graven Cairns 1 Mana Confluence 1 Overgrown Tomb 3 Polluted Delta 2 Sunken Ruins 1 Swamp 1 Twilight Mire 4 Verdant Catacombs 2 Watery Grave CMC = 1 (5): 4 Lightning Bolt 1 Raven’s Crime | CMC = 2 (9): 1 Life from the Loam 3 Mana Leak 2 Rise // Fall 3 Snapcaster Mage CMC = 3 (8): 4 Coalition Relic 2 Maelstrom Pulse 1 Sultai Charm 1 Thirst for Knowledge CMC = 4 (4): 1 Damnation 3 Gifts Ungiven CMC = 5+ (9): 1 Batterskull 1 Cruel Ultimatum 1 Godo, Bandit Warlord 2 Mulldrifter 1 Murderous Cut 1 Shriekmaw 1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang 1 Wurmcoil Engine | Sideboard (15): 1 Abrupt Decay 1 Ancient Grudge 1 Firespout 1 Flashfreeze 2 Keranos, God of Storms 1 Negate 1 Shatterstorm 1 Slay 2 Spellskite 4 Tarmogoyf |
This iteration still has some issues. The Mana Leaks (and the counterspells in the board) need to be something else, but I’m not sure what yet; the manabase is still a little wonky – so much so that I may similarly revert to Reflecting Pool; the sideboard is still pretty weird; and the overall feel of the deck is a bit off, but so far I’ve been enjoying it. I haven’t done quite enough testing to comment directly on most of the cards that haven’t already been mentioned, unfortunately – this part is more an introduction to where I am so far in the process – so hopefully a lot of the card choices match either common thinking or what this spiel has told you of me as a player and deck builder.
***I couldn't tell you why that image isn't showing up.
V. Coda
As multiple people have mentioned, traditional, reactive control decks are either dead or dying. They still have their ardent supporters, but it’s become more and more apparent that the only reasons to hold up mana on the opponent’s turn are the Twin matchup, an early Gifts Ungiven (and even then it’s a little questionable), and the random Blood Moon out of the sideboard.
That doesn’t mean that control as an archetype should be put into a similar pile. People often fail to make the distinction between sorcery-speed control styles and the instant-speed reactive mess that a lot of Modern control decks are right now. Tap-out control allows for proactivity without sacrificing stability, and helps combat disruption by playing threat after threat. I’m not saying that either of these decks I’ve presented are the epitome of that, but to all the people still playing some sort of control list, what exactly are you trying to get out of that?
I couldn’t tell you why I wrote 4007 poorly edited words (including deck lists and BBC shenanigans) to ramble my way to a point that could have been made in a paragraph or two. And I apologize for disrupting the current discussion (even if I disagree with it. Seriously, Squadron Hawk? I haven’t seen effective graveyard hate outside of exactly Scavenging Ooze)****.
Maybe I'm just too verbose for my own good.
-r
****EDIT: As I was finishing this up, I noticed a new discussion forming over an Aggro Loam deck. While I’m all for that, I can’t see anything technically wrong with the list (Academy Ruins // Engineered Explosives is something I feel is too slow, but that’s nitpicking), I wouldn’t try to push Iona // Rites in a deck that only has three Lilianas and a Raven’s Crime for discard outlets.
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// 4 Artifact
4 Mesmeric Orb
// 4 Creature
4 Hedron Crab
// 4 Enchantment
4 Fraying Sanity
// 16 Instant
4 Archive Trap
4 Trapmaker's Snare
3 Visions of Beyond
1 Echoing Truth
4 Path to Exile
// 24 Land
4 Field of Ruin
4 Tolaria West
4 Island
2 Ipnu Rivulet
4 Flooded Strand
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Plains
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Scalding Tarn
4 Merchant Scroll
4 Winds of Abandon
4 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Stony Silence
2 Porphyry Nodes
1 Ravenous Trap
1 Mindbreak Trap
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Silence
1 Echoing Truth
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I don't think steel wall or sidisi's faithful are even the cards you'd want to run. I think Oona's Gatewarden is probably better than either of those, and the best blocker if you want to go that route. It kills all the burn creatures, but more importantly is great against infect (kills their guys even if they pump) and is pretty reasonable against affinity too.
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Personally, I think lands are better than artifact mana. The deck feels a lot more stable this way. There are just too many ways for your opponent to interact with talismans, and the benefit of ramping is just not worth that risk in my opinion. You also have to mull less because a hand like land/map/talisman which would be unplayable suddenly becomes great as land/land/map.
Fabricate is one of my least favorite cards, but I think you should run at least 1 copy of it. It is slow, but the flexibility can really save you.
While I think Glen Elendra Archmage is a great card in general, I don't really like it for this deck because I think its too slow.
As for running more hurkyll's recalls to handle affinity, I've always felt better running more spell snare/annul as opposed to maxing out on recalls. They're just more generally useful and often just as good (if not better a lot of times) against affinity. At the very least I don't believe recall is so much better than snare/annul against affinity that I'd want to give up having those extra snares/annuls against other decks. (Note: I do still tend to run 1-2 Recalls still. I just don't like running more than that.)
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This is a bit facetious. Splashing black for Tasigur and Terminate is hardly making a new deck. Grixis twin is, quite literally, Tarmogoyf to Tasigur, removal 5&6 to Terminate, with maybe some different sideboard options. This is not a new deck. It's still a twin deck. Things like that should have a place for discussion here. Or, if it doesn't then tarmotwin needs a new thread too. UWR twin tends to diverge a bit more, but honestly I'm not sure if it's all that different either...
Twin is just in an interesting spot where the core deck is UR--everything you need can be in these colors. Most decks don't have cores in only two colors and so the colors are already kind of set. As such, there is a lot of flexibility in choosing for a potential third color splash. Most decks don't have this flexibility, which is why people don't really discuss splashes as much.