This is the most recent data, from the Facebook Group poll.
It's actually a pretty even spread between midrange decks like Teferi, bear decks like Blood Pod, and a smattering of more aggressive combo like Selvala.
Ah yeah that's definitely a bit of a less common experience than what I've seen haha. Spell Pierce is ok too, but Flusterstorm is so much more often a far better counterspell.
Great stuff! I think the most relevant one that I personally think should be changed for your list is the Verity Circle over Consideration. In the small testing I've seen and heard from, Verity Circle is one of the best draw effects printed in a while. Flusterstorm is a card I would never omit in anything close to a full budgetless meta, just because it doesn't take Storm decks to make it effective. Most decks chain spells nearer to the end of a game, and are usually pinched on mana. Flusterstorm is also effectively uncounterable outside of another Flusterstorm, which comes up constantly for me.
Turns effects are a holdover from casual Jeleva and don't cut it in cEDH metas. Doomsday is also quite a bit less relevant than it used to be, though reversemermaid is starting to cycle back to that kind of effect. You can find his mediumly relevant and less mediumly updated list here.
A more current and up to date build would likely be here though, but note that Kess v Jeleva is a different discussion and mostly meta relevant. If I were to be playing a Grixis Storm list nowadays I'd be erring more towards the build that Wedge has in the second link.
Guys he's joking. Darren saw fit to post that exact statement (replacing 29 with 28) on my first Scepter Thrasios Primer I posted on this site. Incidentally, that was also the first and last time I really used it!
Question for you, Myojin. I've noticed from your YouTube channel and my general observations about what seems to be most effective in the current cEDH meta game (granted, that's biased from watching Lab Maniacs), it seems like Food Chain and Thrasios are the most efficient and fastest decks in the format currently. I haven't seen Vial Smasher/Thrasios Storm or Yidris Storm, but I think that Thrasios DoomTide edges out Jeleva simply because it has more answers due to including WG. With that being said, it seems like Pithing Needle and Sorcerous Spyglass are very well positioned currently. Even if it's included within a list on a general basis, there is ALWAYS going to be a deck where naming their best activated ability card is going to shut them out of the game. Whether that's Yisan, Wanderer Bard, Arcum Dagsson, Aetherflux Reservoir, Necropotence, etc. I think that there will always be a target for that type of specific hate.
My question is, for my Teferi Stax deck: is it worthwhile to run a slot for one of these cards? Pithing Needle is definitely the best of the two, since its CMC is 1, but I like the ability to peek at an opponent's hand that the Spyglass offers. Kind of like a worse Gitaxian Probe.
If your meta facilitates single critical card activated abilities, that is quite possibly a good piece of hate to slot in. Depending on how fast you need to get down the hate would make or break the difference. For Teferi, it's probably fine to do Sorcerous Spyglass if that's the effect you're looking for. If you're up against Food Chain Prossh or Breakfast Hulk and you need the interaction on Turn 1, obviously Pithing Needle is going to have the edge.
Hey! I've actually tried several different Oath of Druid builds, and this is 100% not one I really want. I've always used it to try and assemble Bomberman, and this is definitely the color set to do it in, but this deck is so much stronger and faster and less gimmicky than that would make it. The elves really do provide a lot of quality mana acceleration that rocks can't do for the same cost. While I could find arguments to cut JVP and Leovold, I would almost never want to cut LabMan. He really does make Doomsday a lot better.
Making a Dramatic Scepter totally spell reliant version of this could work, though, I personally just don't like getting rid of all of the mana dorks and Leovold to enable a spell that hasn't shown to be very good for me in testing. I would definitely encourage you to try it, though. I can help you tweak it if you want to PM me a decklist!
this was really great as doing it showed me why you were right.
i learned a lot but also got to like some cards you do not play.
Yeah that's something I'm going to work on soon. It's something I've seen in a lot of other primers and liked, so I'll be working on that for this primer eventually.
I'll take a peek at your list and get back to you on it, for sure!
I get it's cedh, but i gotta stop at 800 dollar cards.
Would you run Day's undoing over Timetwister if Timetwister was unavailable to you? Or would you replace it entirely with something else?
I definitely agree with what trancer said, given that when we wheel, we're trying to refuel on a storm turn to keep going. The only time Day's Undoing would be useful is if we were already casting Leovold, and didn't want to go off, we just want to gas back up and play a control game. Given that this isn't plan A-E, I don't recommend Day's Undoing. Even Whispering Madness is a better choice, though I don't necessarily know if that's worth it either.
Fair enough, do you have the time to offer a suggestion on what you would replace it with?
With the 3 signets able to filter, grim monolith is slightly less a dead draw now in the deck. Is it worth it to try and fit in the power artifact combo?
Proooooobably Whispering Madness, the more I think about it. I'm not 100% on that though. It's worth trying, I think.
As for Grim Monolith, I still am hesitant. We are increasing its theoretical effectiveness, but I don't think we're quite there yet. I think if I eventually abandon the High Tide lines in favor of more permanent fast mana and no manual storm, that will be when I pull the trigger on Grim and Power.
I get it's cedh, but i gotta stop at 800 dollar cards.
Would you run Day's undoing over Timetwister if Timetwister was unavailable to you? Or would you replace it entirely with something else?
I definitely agree with what trancer said, given that when we wheel, we're trying to refuel on a storm turn to keep going. The only time Day's Undoing would be useful is if we were already casting Leovold, and didn't want to go off, we just want to gas back up and play a control game. Given that this isn't plan A-E, I don't recommend Day's Undoing. Even Whispering Madness is a better choice, though I don't necessarily know if that's worth it either.
Hey Dan, just wanted to say thanks for posting the primer. I just finished building this list, after watching you guys on Youtube I was sold on this instantly.
Thank you so much! I hope you enjoy it! Please message me with how things are going for you with it, I'd love to hear what you see as over/underperformers in your meta.
Quote from TheSloth »
Any budget replacements? Can't exactly afford the Candelabra of Tawnos or Lion's Eye Diamond, but I love playing lists like this. If you could run through the expensive cards and suggest replacements that'd help a lot! Also, if the Bomberman package just flat out doesn't work without LED, what would you put in for the cards that become worse as the money cards are removed?
Candelabra isn't critical, but Lion's Eye Diamond is irreplaceable to the Bomberman kill, which is the strongest part of this deck, in my opinion. Candelabra can be less beneficially replaced with Magus of the Candelabra, or potentially by another card draw spell. Lion's Eye Diamond (and subsequently Auriok Salvagers) I would recommend replacing with more mana ramp, so that you can get to Ad Nauseam faster, which will be your best way to win. Eladamri's Call is also a card I would cut if you removed Bomberman.
Thank you for trying it! It is still new, so it's obviously in flux, but I am absolutely sure there's an optimized list somewhere at the end of this rabbithole. I'd love to hear how it works out for you, and all your thoughts as you play it!
Mostly, yeah. I try not to include toooooo many cards that can't work both on offense and defense, which strong graveyard hate would fall under. HD folds to strong graveyard hate that gets to stick around, but we're mostly in the market for combo juice, we're not a control deck, regardless of how effectively we can grind.
Can you suggest some budget options for the cards over $100 ?
That's really difficult in this deck, and in four color decks as a whole. If you can't play the original duals, you honestly can't make a good build of this deck at the level of competition that even a $200 Yisan build is going to reach. I strongly encourage proxying those cards you find out of your budget, but I understand that not every group views those as positively as I do. I would recommend sticking to other decks if your budget restricts you from playing all the cards over $100, as there are several cards that just don't have good substitutes in that range. A decent upgrade path in that regard would be JVP High Tide -> Dralnu Storm -> Zur Doomsday -> This List.
So I'm ashamed to say that the extent of my testing of the other two main builds has been limited to goldfishing on Tappedout, due to time constraints recently. I believe Sigi is going to be building Lilbrudder's list, so we're actually going to have all three represented by the Labmen, which makes individual testing of each deck less important for me. We're probably going to arrive at a conclusion within a couple months, but it may take a while to get enough games in with the ones that aren't mine, as I've had the head start for our group.
On the topic of the other guy's opening comment, I strongly disagree that this deck feels like a worse Doomsday Zur, and I'd chalk that up to him playing it wrong. This deck feels like a Doomsday Zur list that has mid and late game options. It might be a couple percentage points worse on the 3rd-4th turn, but I don't even necessarily believe that, but I've mentioned that kind of thing already.
I think Sigi put it really well in that thread, the differences between these decks mostly just come down to meta calls and personal preference. Hermit Druid has the potential for super easy mode games. HD is the ultimate example in presenting your opponents with the situation of "I will win next turn unless you interect," and sometimes they have it, sometimes they don't. HD forces them to have it, which is something that I love about the deck. Same thing with casting Buried Alive in that build. One card win conditions, but more heavily reliant on them, from what I can tell. Mine is less single card reliant and more synergy driven, so no one card can be taken out to collapse the deck. Lilbrudders is a very different beast, that I like Sigi's comparison of to Yidris Storm more than Thras/Tymna decks.
I definitely want Remora, and I'm only now getting back into tinkering with the list so we shall see how the unfolds. It's super strong, but not necessarily something I really want to be doing on turn one, as developing your mana is beyond critical in this list. I like it better in Lilbrudder's version of the deck, but it may have a place in mine as well.
It's actually a pretty even spread between midrange decks like Teferi, bear decks like Blood Pod, and a smattering of more aggressive combo like Selvala.
A more current and up to date build would likely be here though, but note that Kess v Jeleva is a different discussion and mostly meta relevant. If I were to be playing a Grixis Storm list nowadays I'd be erring more towards the build that Wedge has in the second link.
If your meta facilitates single critical card activated abilities, that is quite possibly a good piece of hate to slot in. Depending on how fast you need to get down the hate would make or break the difference. For Teferi, it's probably fine to do Sorcerous Spyglass if that's the effect you're looking for. If you're up against Food Chain Prossh or Breakfast Hulk and you need the interaction on Turn 1, obviously Pithing Needle is going to have the edge.
Yeah that's something I'm going to work on soon. It's something I've seen in a lot of other primers and liked, so I'll be working on that for this primer eventually.
I'll take a peek at your list and get back to you on it, for sure!
Proooooobably Whispering Madness, the more I think about it. I'm not 100% on that though. It's worth trying, I think.
As for Grim Monolith, I still am hesitant. We are increasing its theoretical effectiveness, but I don't think we're quite there yet. I think if I eventually abandon the High Tide lines in favor of more permanent fast mana and no manual storm, that will be when I pull the trigger on Grim and Power.
I definitely agree with what trancer said, given that when we wheel, we're trying to refuel on a storm turn to keep going. The only time Day's Undoing would be useful is if we were already casting Leovold, and didn't want to go off, we just want to gas back up and play a control game. Given that this isn't plan A-E, I don't recommend Day's Undoing. Even Whispering Madness is a better choice, though I don't necessarily know if that's worth it either.
Thank you so much! I hope you enjoy it! Please message me with how things are going for you with it, I'd love to hear what you see as over/underperformers in your meta.
Candelabra isn't critical, but Lion's Eye Diamond is irreplaceable to the Bomberman kill, which is the strongest part of this deck, in my opinion. Candelabra can be less beneficially replaced with Magus of the Candelabra, or potentially by another card draw spell. Lion's Eye Diamond (and subsequently Auriok Salvagers) I would recommend replacing with more mana ramp, so that you can get to Ad Nauseam faster, which will be your best way to win. Eladamri's Call is also a card I would cut if you removed Bomberman.
That's really difficult in this deck, and in four color decks as a whole. If you can't play the original duals, you honestly can't make a good build of this deck at the level of competition that even a $200 Yisan build is going to reach. I strongly encourage proxying those cards you find out of your budget, but I understand that not every group views those as positively as I do. I would recommend sticking to other decks if your budget restricts you from playing all the cards over $100, as there are several cards that just don't have good substitutes in that range. A decent upgrade path in that regard would be JVP High Tide -> Dralnu Storm -> Zur Doomsday -> This List.
So I'm ashamed to say that the extent of my testing of the other two main builds has been limited to goldfishing on Tappedout, due to time constraints recently. I believe Sigi is going to be building Lilbrudder's list, so we're actually going to have all three represented by the Labmen, which makes individual testing of each deck less important for me. We're probably going to arrive at a conclusion within a couple months, but it may take a while to get enough games in with the ones that aren't mine, as I've had the head start for our group.
On the topic of the other guy's opening comment, I strongly disagree that this deck feels like a worse Doomsday Zur, and I'd chalk that up to him playing it wrong. This deck feels like a Doomsday Zur list that has mid and late game options. It might be a couple percentage points worse on the 3rd-4th turn, but I don't even necessarily believe that, but I've mentioned that kind of thing already.
I think Sigi put it really well in that thread, the differences between these decks mostly just come down to meta calls and personal preference. Hermit Druid has the potential for super easy mode games. HD is the ultimate example in presenting your opponents with the situation of "I will win next turn unless you interect," and sometimes they have it, sometimes they don't. HD forces them to have it, which is something that I love about the deck. Same thing with casting Buried Alive in that build. One card win conditions, but more heavily reliant on them, from what I can tell. Mine is less single card reliant and more synergy driven, so no one card can be taken out to collapse the deck. Lilbrudders is a very different beast, that I like Sigi's comparison of to Yidris Storm more than Thras/Tymna decks.
I definitely want Remora, and I'm only now getting back into tinkering with the list so we shall see how the unfolds. It's super strong, but not necessarily something I really want to be doing on turn one, as developing your mana is beyond critical in this list. I like it better in Lilbrudder's version of the deck, but it may have a place in mine as well.