Well, what I find interesting, is that so many people I've talked with--and again, even in this thread--are of the opinion that Evershrike isn't that powerful because of all the graveyard hate. This is just another aspect of the "This CREATURE sucks because 372-spells-kill-it conversation."
Tarmogoyf dies to every creature-kill spell ever made. pretty much, and has 0 evasion. It's still a very powerful card, however. Same can be said for Evershrike. It dies to a lot less removal, but it can be hosed more-so by graveyard hate. More people play creature kill than graveyard hate right now.
I, for one, find Evershrike to be a house in testing, and will throw my hat into the ring that it WILL make a splash in the competitive arena. Even if I have to drive it there.
The deck shouldn't built as an aura-Shrike deck. That's what it allows itself to be destroyed by RFG effects. It can however be a powerhouse of a threat in an aggro type deck. Check this out. I've been testing this deck below.
My only problem with that is asides from Bogardan Hellkite in standard, what 7+cmc bombs do you plan on playing while still winning in competitive tournaments? None, I hope... Casual, it might be another story, but in casual all my blue decks play FoW, Memory Lapse, Remand and Man-O'-War. Throw in Eternal Witness and Plow Under for good measure. More broken than huge bombs? I think so. Lol. I love free tempo!
I've been testing Scarscale Ritual in just about everything lately, but it will actually have quite the use with EVE.
Scarscale Ritual 1:symub:
Sorcery
As an additional cost to play ~this~
Put a -1/-1 counter on a creature you
control.
Draw two cards.
Check out these new interactions with it:
2RRR
Haste
Thunderblust has trample as long as it has a -1/-1 counter on it.
Persist (When this creature is put into a graveyard from play, if it had no -1/-1 counters on it, return it to play under its owner's control with a -1/-1 counter on it.)
7/2
3G
Wicker-Bough Elder comes into play with a -1/-1 counter on it.
:symg:, Remove a -1/-1 counter from Wicker-bough Elder : Destroy target artifact or enchantment.
4/4
:symbg::symbg::symbg::symbg::symbg: Trample
Deity of Scars comes into play with two -1/-1 counters on it.
:symgb:, Remove a -1/-1 counter from Deity of Scars: Regenerate Deity of Scars. 7/7
2:symbg: :symgb:, Remove a -1/-1 counter from a creature you control: Quillspike gets +3/+3 until end of turn. 1/1
Another possible use for it, should the following rules interaction work the way I suspect it does, it to use it for any blue or black Hatchling. Scarscale Ritual says as an additional cost, place a -1/-1 counter on a creature you control. Would that counter go on, before the Hatchlings trigger to remove the counter, so in effect, if you had a 6/6 Hatchling before you played it, could you removed the counter to keep the Hatchling as a 6/6. If so, I find that an awesome synergy!
With Deity of Scars, Quillspike and Wicker-Bough Elder all playable in B/G I could see the Rock playing Scarscale Ritual effectively in the upcoming format. If it also works with the Hatchling, I could definitely see it being played over Harmonize in the Rock, as the counters are useful with the above creatures.
Unmake. Unless the creatures I see in my packs are ABSOLUTELY bomb, I always take the best support cards. Unmake can rid you of ANYTHING w/o shroud. As Black is ALWAYS one of my colors, I will have no problem taking this. Next!
I mean from a beginner standpoint. Realizing that you want to make your green deck, green/red now, but in order to have any success at FMN or whatever you have to invest in 100 dollars worth of color fixing lands... Not fun, and not good. I call foul.
QFunT.
Those expensive manabases only add consistency. I've taken decks to tournaments before, even PTQ's, with only basics because a) I couldn't find certains lands or b) I was too lazy and did just fine.
An experienced deckbuilder can build almost any manabase necessary with basic lands, even 5c decks with cards needing multiples of a color. Any beginner can do just fine with basics.
I was just thinking about the potential of having a deck that used Pyrrhic Revival as a one or two of, then using graveyard removal effects to basically shut the opponent out of creatures. Sample decklist:
The idea here is to use Beckon Apparition and Faerie Macabre to remove your opponent's creatures from the graveyard before playing Pyrrhic Revival. Then Heartmender can be used to remove the counters from your creatures.
Various Synergies involved:
discarding Faerie Macabre for its ability allows it to be revived
Hidden Horror can dump a River Kelpie or Heartmender pre-revival.
River Kelpie with Pyrrhic Revival can net you a bunch of cards.
Unmake ensures that they won't have creatures in their graveyard
This deck was just a random thought, take it as you will.
Actually, Gilder Bairn is quite awesome in my U/B midrange deck I've been playing. Testing it out with proxies. I love having a Dusk Urchins enchanted with Unstable Mutation, getting it to be a 2/1 with 5 -1/-1 counters on it, then using the Gilder Bairn's ability to put 5 more -1/-1 counters on it. Drawing 10 cards never before hurt-so-good.
Basically, it's MBA/C. Loxodon Warhammer on Ashling lets you trample over to start killing your opponents creatures. If you opponent is sitting on a creature like Chameleon Colossus with mana to pump it however, Beseech a Whispersilk Cloak and attack with her. Discarding a Korlash through Grandeur to fetch two Leechridden Swamp always puts a smile on my face.
Exatcly, I love it too. That's the beauty of Ravnica, color combos have a nickname forever (except Dimir. No one plays Dimir).
Except me :S LOL!
Recently, I rode U/B/w Mannequin to top 8 States last year. And during Rav block, before Guildpact came out, my Dark Confidant, Moroi, Hinder, etc deck was a house. Then with Time Spiral I had a Dark Confidant/Voidmage Prodigy/Willbender deck that was also a house along with Shadowmage Infiltrator.
I love Dimir! My rogue deck has always been U/B. U/B has imo always been the premier best 2-color control duo. Discard/Counters/Bounce/Creature Kill/Card Draw. PRO!
On topic, U/R needs more tools than we have seen thus far to have any semblance of a dominating color duo in standard. Electrolyze would be AWESOME right now, but unless I'm mistaken, no such luck. Although, in DC10, Izzet Chronomancer still musters an autoscoop, LOL!
Tarmogoyf dies to every creature-kill spell ever made. pretty much, and has 0 evasion. It's still a very powerful card, however. Same can be said for Evershrike. It dies to a lot less removal, but it can be hosed more-so by graveyard hate. More people play creature kill than graveyard hate right now.
I, for one, find Evershrike to be a house in testing, and will throw my hat into the ring that it WILL make a splash in the competitive arena. Even if I have to drive it there.
04 Nip Gwyllion
04 Prickly Boggart
04 Oona's Prowler
04 Inkfathom Infiltrator
04 Dusk Urchins
04 Evershrike
Spells
04 Thoughtseize
03 Unmake
04 Edge of the Divinity
03 Spirit Loop
Lands
07 Swamp
04 Fetid Heath
04 Flagstones of Trokair
04 Plains
02 Leechridden Swamp
01 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
04 Disenchant
04 Beckon Apparition
04 Slaughter Pact
03 Faerie Macabre
It looks to me, like 2 creatures surrounded by a ton of bats beating their wings. Batwing Brume?
Brume - noun mist; fog.
Scarscale Ritual 1:symub:
Sorcery
As an additional cost to play ~this~
Put a -1/-1 counter on a creature you
control.
Draw two cards.
Check out these new interactions with it:
Thunderblust has trample as long as it has a -1/-1 counter on it.
Persist (When this creature is put into a graveyard from play, if it had no -1/-1 counters on it, return it to play under its owner's control with a -1/-1 counter on it.)
7/2
:symg:, Remove a -1/-1 counter from Wicker-bough Elder : Destroy target artifact or enchantment.
4/4
:symgb:, Remove a -1/-1 counter from Deity of Scars: Regenerate Deity of Scars. 7/7
With Deity of Scars, Quillspike and Wicker-Bough Elder all playable in B/G I could see the Rock playing Scarscale Ritual effectively in the upcoming format. If it also works with the Hatchling, I could definitely see it being played over Harmonize in the Rock, as the counters are useful with the above creatures.
What do you think?
Unmake. Unless the creatures I see in my packs are ABSOLUTELY bomb, I always take the best support cards. Unmake can rid you of ANYTHING w/o shroud. As Black is ALWAYS one of my colors, I will have no problem taking this. Next!
Puncture Blast would be my 2nd pick.
QFunT.
Those expensive manabases only add consistency. I've taken decks to tournaments before, even PTQ's, with only basics because a) I couldn't find certains lands or b) I was too lazy and did just fine.
An experienced deckbuilder can build almost any manabase necessary with basic lands, even 5c decks with cards needing multiples of a color. Any beginner can do just fine with basics.
04 Safehold Elite
04 Kitchen Finks
04 Faerie Macabre
04 Heartmender
04 Dusk Urchins
04 Hidden Horror
02 River Kelpie
04 Beckon Apparition
04 Unmake
03 Pyrrhic Revival
Lands
07 Swamp
04 Flagstones of Trokair
04 Fetid Heath
03 Plains
02 Sunken Ruins
02 Secluded Glen
01 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
The idea here is to use Beckon Apparition and Faerie Macabre to remove your opponent's creatures from the graveyard before playing Pyrrhic Revival. Then Heartmender can be used to remove the counters from your creatures.
Various Synergies involved:
Why can't use Bitterblossom, too? LOL! Also, the Liege with Beckon Apparition almost made me junk myself...
04 Korlash, Heir to Blackblade
04 Fulminator Mage
04 Shriekmaw
03 Augur of Skulls
03 Ashling the Extinguisher
Spells
04 Thoughtseize
03 Beseech the Queen
03 Damnation
02 Profane Command
02 Tendrils of Corruption
01 Neo-Cranial Extraction
01 Extirpate
01 Corrupt
01 Whispersilk Cloak
01 Loxodon Warhammer
Lands
18 Swamp
04 Leechridden Swamp
01 Urza's Factory
Basically, it's MBA/C. Loxodon Warhammer on Ashling lets you trample over to start killing your opponents creatures. If you opponent is sitting on a creature like Chameleon Colossus with mana to pump it however, Beseech a Whispersilk Cloak and attack with her. Discarding a Korlash through Grandeur to fetch two Leechridden Swamp always puts a smile on my face.
Except me :S LOL!
Recently, I rode U/B/w Mannequin to top 8 States last year. And during Rav block, before Guildpact came out, my Dark Confidant, Moroi, Hinder, etc deck was a house. Then with Time Spiral I had a Dark Confidant/Voidmage Prodigy/Willbender deck that was also a house along with Shadowmage Infiltrator.
I love Dimir! My rogue deck has always been U/B. U/B has imo always been the premier best 2-color control duo. Discard/Counters/Bounce/Creature Kill/Card Draw. PRO!
On topic, U/R needs more tools than we have seen thus far to have any semblance of a dominating color duo in standard. Electrolyze would be AWESOME right now, but unless I'm mistaken, no such luck. Although, in DC10, Izzet Chronomancer still musters an autoscoop, LOL!