Rose Hedge1GG
Creature - Plant (U)
Defender, reach
Whenever Rose's Hedge is dealt damage, transform it.
1/6
/////// Rose's Thorns
Creature - Plant (U)
Rose's Thorns can't be blocked except by two or more creatures.
Whenever Rose's Blossom deals damage, transform it.
6/1
This card will die the moment it transforms. Needs a "regenerate" or "remove all damage from it" in there somewhere.
Or maybe "at the beginning of each player's upkeep, if blah happened last turn, transform ~".
Towering Ancient2GG
Creature - Treefolk (R)
Defender; reach
When Towering Ancient dies, it deals damage equal to its toughness to each creature attacking you or a planeswalker you control.
0/7
Not exactly in the core of green's color pie, but I believe for a top-down rare it's perfectly suitable.
IIW: One or more cards that would fit in a cycle with Meddling Mage.
DurdleGUU
Instant (R)
Planeswalk (Put each face-up plane card and phenomenon card on the bottom of its owner’s planar deck face down, then move the top card of your planar deck off that planar deck and turn it face up.)
Populate (Put a token onto the battlefield that's a copy of a creature token you control.)
Proliferate (You choose any number of permanents and/or players with counters on them, then give each another counter of a kind already there.)
Scry 1 (Look at the top card of your library. You may put that card on the bottom of your library.)
Fateseal 1 (Look at the top card of an opponent's library. You may put that card on the bottom of its owner's library.)
You asked for a return to Zendikar. As far the story of the block left off, the Eldrazi are still roaming free on the plane consuming everything in their path. If the entire plane isn't a lifeless expanse by now, it is reasonable to believe that at least parts of it are.
Lifeless Expanse
Land (U)
, Put the top two cards of your library into your graveyard: Add to your mana pool. Activate this ability only any time you could cast an instant.
IIW: One or more cards that would fit in a cycle with Meddling Mage.
Geodesic Barrier3
Artifact (R)
Creatures with power 3 or greater can't attack.
Picture the inside of a giant buckyball composed of shining lines of force. A towering monster of some sort (a hydra perhaps?) can be seen on the opposite side of the ball, struggling futilely to break through.
Stomp FlatG
Instant (U)
Destroy target noncreature permanent. Its controller may search his or her library for a basic land card, put that card onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle his or her library.
Stops a lot of combos and other problematic permanents. Castable off of Elvish Spirit Guide on the draw. Usable by combo decks to answer things like leylines, but at least it isn't another free counterspell. Probably not broken.
Played it again last night and had significant mana issues. Luck is of course a factor, but with 25 lands I should really be running Divination, probably 3 or 4. Jace's Ingenuity is great and all but getting to five mana and double blue is not a sure thing.
It looks like your deck is very similar to mine, and your conclusions as well. I'm currently testing 4x Prophetic Flamespeaker instead of Steam Augury, since he actually kinda does the same thing but can also pressure their life total or walkers. Unfortunately he dies to everything.
I'm not convinced the Flamespeaker fits here -- one of the big upsides to this deck is that it blanks most creature removal. I'm interested to see how it plays out for you, though.
Round 1 vs. Abzan Goodstuff with a ton of 3-drops:
Lost game 1 -- Mulled to 6, kept Negate and Disdainful Stroke in the opening hand, neither of which had any valid targets, and couldn't draw a sweeper or enough spot removal to stabilize.
OUT: 2x Negate, 1x Disdainful Stroke
IN: 1x Resolute Archangel, 2x End Hostilities
Won game 2 -- Stabilized at about 5 life, cast Resolute Archangel, and managed to grind out a win with the Archangel, two Sphinxes, and an Elspeth.
Draw game 3 -- I was never under a lot of pressure this game, but my opponent managed to gain about 40 life thanks to Ajani and Sorin and I couldn't finish him off quite fast enough before running out of time and extra turns. Probably 1-2 turns short of the win.
Round 2 vs. Red-White aggro (paired down):
No difficulty at all here. Both games were complete blowouts in my favor.
Round 3 vs. Mardu aggro (paired up):
4x Anger of the Gods main makes this matchup pretty favorable. Never dropped below 8 life either game.
Round 4 vs. Blue-Black draw-go control:
Won game 1 -- I got pretty lucky managing to sneak a Keranos through my opponent's countermagic after he tapped out for Ashiok the previous turn. The only other threat I managed to resolve was a Sarkhan, which got in for 4 and then died to Hero's Downfall the next turn. Keranos managed to get there, though, eating through two Ashioks and about 26 life of damage. The game ended with zero cards left in my library, after Keranos domed my opponent with my last card.
OUT: 4x Chained to the Rocks, 4x Anger of the Gods, 1x Steam Augury
IN: 2x Negate, 1x Magma Jet, 1x Lightning Strike, 2x End Hostilities, 2x Erase, 1x Resolute Archangel
Chained to the Rocks and Anger of the Gods do nothing in this matchup and Steam Augury is bad in that it mills me and potentially lets my opponent bin a win condition or two. Archangel is an extra threat in a matchup in which I need every threat I can muster, Negate can protect my threats or counter his, End Hostilities can deal with any creatures he might side in or Sphinxes he might steal, and Erase deals with Keranos he might steal.
Game 2 opponent floods out, I manage to resolve Elspeth and keep her alive a few turns, and that is that.
I think I would not normally have won this matchup -- my threat density is pretty low; the combination of Ashiok, countermagic, and Hero's Downfall makes it very difficult for me to stick the threats I do have; and a number of my cards are pretty much dead in the matchup.
Thoughts for tuning the deck and playing it in the future:
- Don't keep a hand with two counterspells game 1 against an opponent with an unknown deck.
- Another 2x Flooded Strand would be pretty nice, probably over 2x Mystic Monastery. I just couldn't find any more in time for the event.
- I think I'd rather maindeck 4x Magma Jet -- the number of three-toughness creatures I saw was very low, while the scry on Jet was very handy.
- Steam Augury performed well the one time I resolved it, but I'd rather have Jace's Ingenuity or another threat.
- A few extra threats on the sideboard would help improve the control matchup. Mantis Rider and/or another Prognostic Sphinx or two are likely candidates.
I've tested both and been consistently underwhelmend by prognostic sphinx. If you're looking for topdeck control, Jace, the living guildpact does that job a lot better and a lot faster, plus synergizes with the new draw cards. And with all the cheap instant removal leaving standard, hexproof is less relevant, since stormbreath dodges a lot of the powerful removal anyway
These are of course all just my subjective opinions. I still haven't written the sphinx off entirely, but it seems a little clunky.
I suppose there's an argument to be made that Sphinx is a bad stormbreath and a bad jace rolled into a single card, so it's worth the downsides to ahve it serve both functions - e.g. a clock and topdeck manipulation.
The list I'm testing is somewhat similar. It revolves around Chained to the Rocks and Anger of the gods.
I like this list a lot, but it seems to me that 10 Mountains as your only red sources is a little light if you want to reliably hit turn 3 Anger of the Gods. I would replace some number of Islands, Plains, and/or Temple of Enlightenment with Mystic Monastery, Battlefield Forge, or Shivan Reef.
Bestow makes the card an aura with enchant creature, which means that once Sarkhan is no longer a creature, Boon Satyr will become unattached from him and turn into an enchantment creature.
Or maybe "at the beginning of each player's upkeep, if blah happened last turn, transform ~".
Creature - Treefolk (R)
Defender; reach
When Towering Ancient dies, it deals damage equal to its toughness to each creature attacking you or a planeswalker you control.
0/7
Enchantment (R)
Creatures can't attack or block unless each untapped creature controlled by the same player attacks or blocks.
IIW: One or more cards that would fit in a cycle with Meddling Mage.
Decimate?
Durdle GUU
Instant (R)
Planeswalk (Put each face-up plane card and phenomenon card on the bottom of its owner’s planar deck face down, then move the top card of your planar deck off that planar deck and turn it face up.)
Populate (Put a token onto the battlefield that's a copy of a creature token you control.)
Proliferate (You choose any number of permanents and/or players with counters on them, then give each another counter of a kind already there.)
Scry 1 (Look at the top card of your library. You may put that card on the bottom of your library.)
Fateseal 1 (Look at the top card of an opponent's library. You may put that card on the bottom of its owner's library.)
Actual entry to come later, maybe.
Land (U)
, Put the top two cards of your library into your graveyard: Add to your mana pool. Activate this ability only any time you could cast an instant.
IIW: One or more cards that would fit in a cycle with Meddling Mage.
3RW for basically a Plague Wind and 6 damage to the face. Sounds about right!
Artifact (R)
Creatures with power 3 or greater can't attack.
Instant (U)
Destroy target noncreature permanent. Its controller may search his or her library for a basic land card, put that card onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle his or her library.
I'm not convinced the Flamespeaker fits here -- one of the big upsides to this deck is that it blanks most creature removal. I'm interested to see how it plays out for you, though.
4x Mystic Monastery
3x Temple of Enlightenment
2x Flooded Strand
10x Mountain
3x Plains
3x Island
Spot Removal:
4x Banishing Light
4x Chained to the Rocks
2x Magma Jet
2x Lightning Strike
1x Stoke the Flames
2x Negate
2x Distainful Stroke
4x Anger of the Gods
2x End Hostilities
Card Advantage:
1x Steam Augury
1x Jace's Ingenuity
2x Dig Through Time
Win Conditions:
2x Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
2x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
2x Keranos, God of Storms
2x Prognostic Sphinx
2x End Hostilities
4x Nyx-Fleece Ram
2x Erase
1x Lightning Strike
1x Magma Jet
2x Negate
1x Tormod's Crypt
1x Steam Augury
1x Resolute Archangel
Round 1 vs. Abzan Goodstuff with a ton of 3-drops:
Lost game 1 -- Mulled to 6, kept Negate and Disdainful Stroke in the opening hand, neither of which had any valid targets, and couldn't draw a sweeper or enough spot removal to stabilize.
OUT: 2x Negate, 1x Disdainful Stroke
IN: 1x Resolute Archangel, 2x End Hostilities
Won game 2 -- Stabilized at about 5 life, cast Resolute Archangel, and managed to grind out a win with the Archangel, two Sphinxes, and an Elspeth.
Draw game 3 -- I was never under a lot of pressure this game, but my opponent managed to gain about 40 life thanks to Ajani and Sorin and I couldn't finish him off quite fast enough before running out of time and extra turns. Probably 1-2 turns short of the win.
Round 2 vs. Red-White aggro (paired down):
No difficulty at all here. Both games were complete blowouts in my favor.
Round 3 vs. Mardu aggro (paired up):
4x Anger of the Gods main makes this matchup pretty favorable. Never dropped below 8 life either game.
Round 4 vs. Blue-Black draw-go control:
Won game 1 -- I got pretty lucky managing to sneak a Keranos through my opponent's countermagic after he tapped out for Ashiok the previous turn. The only other threat I managed to resolve was a Sarkhan, which got in for 4 and then died to Hero's Downfall the next turn. Keranos managed to get there, though, eating through two Ashioks and about 26 life of damage. The game ended with zero cards left in my library, after Keranos domed my opponent with my last card.
OUT: 4x Chained to the Rocks, 4x Anger of the Gods, 1x Steam Augury
IN: 2x Negate, 1x Magma Jet, 1x Lightning Strike, 2x End Hostilities, 2x Erase, 1x Resolute Archangel
Chained to the Rocks and Anger of the Gods do nothing in this matchup and Steam Augury is bad in that it mills me and potentially lets my opponent bin a win condition or two. Archangel is an extra threat in a matchup in which I need every threat I can muster, Negate can protect my threats or counter his, End Hostilities can deal with any creatures he might side in or Sphinxes he might steal, and Erase deals with Keranos he might steal.
Game 2 opponent floods out, I manage to resolve Elspeth and keep her alive a few turns, and that is that.
I think I would not normally have won this matchup -- my threat density is pretty low; the combination of Ashiok, countermagic, and Hero's Downfall makes it very difficult for me to stick the threats I do have; and a number of my cards are pretty much dead in the matchup.
Thoughts for tuning the deck and playing it in the future:
- Don't keep a hand with two counterspells game 1 against an opponent with an unknown deck.
- Another 2x Flooded Strand would be pretty nice, probably over 2x Mystic Monastery. I just couldn't find any more in time for the event.
- I think I'd rather maindeck 4x Magma Jet -- the number of three-toughness creatures I saw was very low, while the scry on Jet was very handy.
- Steam Augury performed well the one time I resolved it, but I'd rather have Jace's Ingenuity or another threat.
- A few extra threats on the sideboard would help improve the control matchup. Mantis Rider and/or another Prognostic Sphinx or two are likely candidates.
I like this list a lot, but it seems to me that 10 Mountains as your only red sources is a little light if you want to reliably hit turn 3 Anger of the Gods. I would replace some number of Islands, Plains, and/or Temple of Enlightenment with Mystic Monastery, Battlefield Forge, or Shivan Reef.