Yo! This is ShinyMan. Thanks for commenting on my blog. In response to your courtesy, I'm here to see your blog.
Looking from the openess of T2 right now there could be hundred of deck archetypes between tier 2 to tier 1. Dovescape has always been a tier 1.5 at best. (Win sometimes but doesn't get played and win consistently.) It might take endless effort to push it up to tier 1. But I sure would like to pad your shoulder and say 'Go for it, man!'
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- ShinyMan
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The argument for Sphinx is to get the nut draw more often. But so far I've found myself inching away from casting a turn-2 Curious Obsession, mainly because this deck is not a combo deck; it's a tempo/aggro-control deck. Hence, it's much more important to leave mana up for counterspells and to control the board than to go all-in; my results are much better when I'm patient with casting Obsession. And even with Sphinx, the nut draw of turn-2 Curious Obsession + Spell Pierce/Dive Down still didn't happen often enough to be worth the times I drew Sphinx after the opening hand and never got to cast it the whole game.
Another argument for Sphinx is to smooth out mana in the early turns. I've dropped the Sphinx and gone for 21 lands with 4 Opts (which fuel Pteramander, see below), and so far it hasn't been problematic.
I have dropped Mist-Cloaked Herald for Pteramander. The latter is just a much better late-game card. It's almost always a grind after sideboard and a 5/5 flyer is just much better than an unblockable 1/1. The only place where I miss the Herald is in the mirror, which obviously doesn't come up very often.
I've also swapped the 1 maindeck Chart the Course for Precognitive Perception. This card helps so much when the game goes long or when I'm flooding out. There were a few times when I wished it had been Chart the Course, but so far it has pulled enough weight for me to keep trying it. Still on the fence about this, but not disliking it either.
Wow, has it been 12 years already? I really miss that card, too.
btw, I think the flavour text for this card is fine. It represents the guild well.
Bounce and then go nuts with drawing is not that hard to imagine, even better when coupled with Reflector Mage.
Actually, a crappy possibility about the guild pack was that your colors could be spread out too thin, and you can't really get a solid base color.
If the seeded packs are exclusively monocolored, then you're guaranteed to have a strong base color. That's not a bad thing.
In truth, the set is about "Gods and their presence" that happens to use enchantments to convey Gods' intervention on the world. Had they said it like that since the beginning, I doubt people would be on rampage the way they're doing now.
I think WotC messed up their announcements and that misled people. They said it's going to be "Enchantment" set and people began expecting bountiful enchantments, enchantment matters theme, etc.
In truth, the set is about "Gods and their presence" that happens to use enchantments to convey Gods' intervention on the world. Had they said it like that since the beginning, I doubt people would be on rampage the way they're doing now.
It's fine to have a specific preference. But attendance tanked during that time and peak at present, so the general trend is that things were bad during Urza's block and better now, comparatively.
Steam Vents might be the hardest, but it's still possible to re-imagine it into a hot spring-like area close to a volcano where steam bursts out.