Cross tribe cards are hard since they would have to be extra powerful to counteract not benefitting from the other tribal boosts in those decks. Knight-Captain of Eos and Hero of Bladehold, Knights that otherwise fit a Soldier deck, are the examples that come to my mind. If they themselves were Soldiers, I'd be more inclined to play them.
Otherwise, great science post.
So you're sympathetic to cutting Discovery but not sure what to replace it with? That tells me pick something and put the other thing in sideboard? Seems like it would be better in Dimir with surveil matters stuff like Disinformation Campaign and more black sources to enable Dispersal.
My list actually had 2 Spell Pierces main and 2 side. Cutting Discovery/Dispersal allows me to put a 3rd main, freeing up a sideboard slot which I'll use for a Spyglass. And that means I can replace the Blood Crypt with another Mountain.
Agreed Jaya is no good here. Been quite happy with Ral, Storm Conduit. Saheeli is hit or miss
Crash Through rarely does anything besides cantrip, I'd rather have a 1 mana spell that does something in and of itself. Similarly, I'm not a huge fan of Discovery//Dispersal.
Beacon Bolt is rarely relevant (stuff out of range of other removal but still within its range)
Invade the City would be more useful with Lazotep Plating and I'm sticking with Dive Down for now.
Found a Reddit thread on what WAR brings to Drakes that seems useful - https://www.reddit.com/r/spikes/comments/bfomzh/standard_izzet_drakes_in_war/
they did not care for Bolt Bend. I had minimal results either way, so I'll take their word for it
they felt Saheeli clashed with Enigma for a 3CMC slot, but I wasn't running Enigma anymore anyway.
Narset sounds intriguing now that they mention it.
What I'm trying now:
7 Island
5 Mountain
1 Blood Crypt
4 Steam Vents
4 Sulfur Falls
Creature (10)
4 Crackling Drake
2 Niv-Mizzet, Parun
4 Pteramander
Sorcery (8)
4 Chart a Course
1 Discovery // Dispersal
3 Lava Coil
4 Dive Down
4 Opt
3 Samut’s Sprint
3 Shock
1 Spell Pierce
Enchantment (1)
1 Search for Azcanta
Planeswalker (4)
2 Ral, Storm Conduit
2 Saheeli, Sublime Artificer
3 Blink of an Eye
1 Disdainful Stroke
4 Fight with Fire
1 Lava Coil
2 Narset, Parter of Veils
1 Samut’s Sprint
3 Spell Pierce
1 Shock
Bond of Discipline could enable an alpha strike or gain enough life to stall against other aggro but I worry it'll too often be a dead card; multiple instances of lifelink on the same object are redundant (Comprehensive Rules 702.15f)
I'm thinking about Prison Realm as a Ixalan's Binding replacement post rotation.
Pledge of Unity might have potential to keep my creatures from being too small and provide some more lifegain. Similarly, Ajani, the Greathearted.
Conclave Cavalier, Song of Freyalise and Tithe Taker have all been underwhelming.
Here's what I'll be testing:
7 Plains
7 Forest
4 Sunpetal Grove
4 Temple Garden
Creature (7)
3 Emmara, Soul of the Accord
4 Llanowar Elves
Sorcery (4)
4 Sworn Companions
4 March of the Multitudes
3 Pledge of Unity
Enchantment (18)
4 Conclave Tribunal
3 Divine Visitation
4 History of Benalia
4 Ixalan’s Binding
3 Legion’s Landing
2 Ajani, the Greathearted
1 Arboretum Elemental
4 Assure // Assemble
1 Conclave Cavalier
4 Crushing Canopy
4 Sprouting Renewal
1 Tithe Taker
I thought about Lazotep Plating, but as a replacement for Dive Down post-rotation rather than now
Esper Control hs a real pain for me especially since I can't match it in counterspell ammo
Was wondering how to update this with War of the Spark cards
Samut's Sprint seems related to what this deck tries to do moreso than some other cheap spells
Saheeli, Sublime Artificer pumps out a lot of 1/1's, could help go wide iuf there's a problem with getting a Drake through, accelerate the Drake clock, produce chump blockers
Ral, Storm Conduit most of what we do pings opponent or walker. the copy effect helps provide gas and take down something too big for 1 piece of our removal
Jaya, Venerated Firemage Shock on legs and amplifies our other damage, particularly Ral pings
Chandra, Fire Artisan Light Up the Stage on legs. but have to play it the same turn. Would be painful to remove. the few times i've tried her I didn't hit something I had the mana to cast but I'm still giving her a chance.
Bolt Bend likely to have a big enough creature, could really mess with things like spot removal
Bond of Insight seems cool but had the problem of having enough mana to play what I just got back (similar to Chandra)
Thought about Jaya's Greeting, Chandra's Pyrohelix, Ral's Outburst
Trying this:
7 Island
6 Mountain
4 Steam Vents
4 Sulfur Falls
Creature (10)
4 Crackling Drake
2 Niv-Mizzet, Parun
4 Pteramander
Sorcery (8)
4 Lava Coil
4 Chart a Course
4 Dive Down
4 Opt
4 Samut’s Sprint
Enchantment (1)
1 Search for Azcanta
Planeswalker (7)
1 Chandra, Fire Artisan
2 Jaya, Venerated Firemage
2 Ral, Storm Conduit
3 Saheeli, Sublime Artificer
1 Beacon Bolt
3 Blink of an Eye
4 Bolt Bend
2 Crash Through
1 Disdainful Stroke
4 Fight with Fire
I compared it to my Guilds of Ravnica spoiler which worked, when I removed GRN and re-added that the program crashed
This happened after I uninstalled and reinstalled MWS
8 D&D Ravnica miniatures for $64.99 - https://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/262277
Azorius prerelease pack for $16.99 - https://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/270266
Since I have a lot of duplicates and am interested in a lot of stuff, I do well trading. I'd also buy singles to fill a few gaps. If I don't have much from a set I might choose that for prize packs or pick-your-own-packs Limited events. For each method I sometimes look back a few sets.
Checklists help keep track when buying or trading for missing cards. I have some printouts in a small binder to go with my trade binder.
I maintain an extensive collection of checklist files: https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic-fundamentals/other-magic-products/third-party-products/805324-checklists-for-everything-from-alpha-to-ravnica
You could type in the documents to keep track of your collection digitally, but these are optimized to print out nicely, to have information handy when near cards but not your computer. I aimed for nice formatting, and making efficient use of paper.
They should be particularly useful for organizing cards into 9 pocket pages, especially with incomplete sets from before collector numbers and/or with multiple versions.
I have both Word 2007 (.DOCX) and Excel versions.
I didn't want to mess with file format since precise formatting is key to these.
Older versions of Word can understand this format with a plugin. OpenOffice had problems with these .DOCX's last I checked a few years ago. However, if I have MS Word save as .DOC, and send that to OO, there aren't as many problems. I can do that if there's interest. Also, OO Calc didsn't seem to have a problem reading the Excel versions.
-PDF versions of some (if you want a PDF of another list, let me know)-
Folder - http://www.mediafire.com/folder/1pb3t6abtpbta/PDF_Versions
Ravnica Allegiance: https://www.mediafire.com/file/bbo19o9tjhapzjk/Ravnica_Allegiance_Checklist.pdf/file
Dominaria: http://www.mediafire.com/file/w39r237fbqg9u75/
Born of the Gods: http://www.mediafire.com/file/9f4gomd39h37de9/Born_of_the_Gods_Checklist.pdf/file
Ice Age Block: http://www.mediafire.com/file/zy4luxocy6kbzz9/
The Dark: https://www.mediafire.com/file/v3nf0i29knm0kcd/The_Dark_Checklist.pdf/file
All early non-block expansions: http://www.mediafire.com/file/kxe7b2pqinrnwrr/
From The Vault series: http://www.mediafire.com/file/rnth8b26zb6qm12/From The Vault checklist.pdf
Chronicles: http://www.mediafire.com/view/2j6ku4ac9xa31lf/
(If somebody wants PDF versions of something else, let me know)
Not every checklist looks the same (especially since I assembled them over a large period of time, and tweaked the format for the circumstances of each set). However, the examples above provide a pretty good approximation. These are non-editable PDFs.
-One set to a Word document-
List of Core Sets: https://www.mediafire.com/folder/36gh6ngl1cip9/Core_Sets
List of Expansions: https://www.mediafire.com/folder/mpxmd1gpfisg1/Expansions
List of Promo Categories: https://www.mediafire.com/folder/mx839udnb64ja/Promos
List of Special Sets: https://www.mediafire.com/folder/lnbjnzm7mhqdj/Special_Sets
All core sets ZIP: https://www.mediafire.com/file/splj7yp838qpwlz/Core_Sets_Alpha_to_M19.zip/file
All expansions ZIP: https://www.mediafire.com/file/ckjk2do9zo0uao8/Expansions_AN_to_RNA.zip/file
All promos ZIP: https://www.mediafire.com/file/s57iwg7ul5nd5lk/Promos_[as_of_RNA].zip/file
Special Sets ZIP: https://www.mediafire.com/file/62uodrl5p6alq65/Special_Sets_through_partial_RNA_Guild_Kits.zip/file
-Combined Checklist Word-
For blocks and other groups of related sets, I made one Word document that had the checklists for all the sets in the group.
List - https://www.mediafire.com/folder/wy841ejlszaea/Combined_Checklist
All files - https://www.mediafire.com/file/7rfifg99rnknn3t/Combined_Checklist_-_Word_[v4].zip/file
Sets with alternate versions (Alliances, Antiquities, Arabian Nights, Champions of Kamigawa, Chronicles, Fallen Empires, Homelands, Shadows over Innistrad, Unstable - http://www.mediafire.com/file/bja2ooyk6e668da/Sets With Alternate Versions.zip
All Sliver, Changeling, Ally - http://www.mediafire.com/file/dbo570ihcx4bogd
-Combined Checklist Word by plane-
http://www.mediafire.com/?s4tylc2wd6zzy
Both Innistrad blocks in the same file, same for Mirrodin, Ravnica, and Zendikar
-Combined Checklist Excel-
List - http://www.mediafire.com/folder/l5n4vkmcmnwtd/Excel
All files - https://www.mediafire.com/file/ui6uei6wwep5pqq/Combined_Checklist_-_Excel_[v4].zip/file
No luck at a Legacy tournament where an Unlimited Mox was one of the top prizes.
No luck with Zendikar Priceless Treasures (but I did get a Revised Bayou, one of the original duals I was missing)
didn't order, still not sure how to feel about that. Yet even if I had, I would've only gotten 1.
CoolStuffInc is my favorite otherwise - the prices are comparable especially with customer rewards discount, shipping is free on $100+ orders
I get my fill of boosters at the LGS (box for buy-a-box promo, Limited events and/or prizes), and I often get other sealed product like Planeswalker decks there. If not I'd compare prices at the above.