So, I read Ross Merriam's article. I had my hopes up that it would be interesting, but apparently he blames Twitter for the increasing disdain of Tron. At first I thought it was another joke (the Nickleback comparison was kinda funny), but he seems to be serious about it. Twitter, really? The discussion about Tron and Ancient Stirrings, specifically, has been all over the place. I read opinions about it in every MtG forum I frequent, I have seen the topic brought up in various streams that I watched. I have heard it discussed in voice chats and in real life. But now I have to rethink if all of this actually happened, because it might have been a giant Twitter conspiracy that I just happened to miss out on because I, like most people I know, don't give a flying chirp about Twitter.
Not playing any noncreature spells outside of Aether Vial (which is most relevant on turn 1) has the upside of turning Stubborn Denial, Negate and several other counterspells into dead cards, especially when combined with Cavern of Souls. The CoCo versions of Humans are considerably easier to handle for some of the nost popular blue-based decks in the format. I would, thus, not call it a bug but a feature, at least to some degree.
Mishra's Bauble adds more air to the deck, which will inevitably result in more hands that look fine *if* we get a another land. I already have this problem with many hands that contain 2 Street Wraiths. I like that Mishra's Bauble can trigger revolt, but this comes at the cost of delaying a draw, which often makes it harder to plan ahead. My feeling is that Mishra's Bauble has better synergy with Serum Visions than with Opt.
Engineered Explosives feels so clunky in a deck that ideally wants to operate on three lands. I have been running a single copy for a while and have been underwhelmed by it more often than not. And that's coming from somebody who loved the card in Grixis Control. It's still OK-ish in GDS, but three copies seems over the top.
I used to be a huge fan of Kozilek's Return, but two damage on turn 3 or 4 often just doesn't seem to be enough anymore. Half of the board of the typical Humans deck usually survives it.
Rakdos Charm is another former pet card of mine. Kolaghan's Command seems so much better than Rakdos Charm against Affinity. It's nearly always a two for one trade and since Affinity is often hellbent after turn 2 and likes to cast its spells on sorcery speed, instant speed discard has been so good over and over again. Instant speed graveyard hate can be great, but most graveyard-centric decks are so low on interaction that it often doesn't seem to matter if they see it coming (Nihil Spellbomb) or not. Plus, about half of the graveyard decks actually run discard spells, so they can often see it coming.
A mix of Stubborn Denial and Inquisition of Kozilek seems better to me, because one of them tends to be a dead card in certain matchups.
Has anyone on this list that doesn't run 4 Sleight of Hands tried running 3 Angler - 1 Tasigur. Angler is much better vs. Eldrazi and mirror matches because it trades with every non Shadow creature and clocks faster. Also angler works a little better with TBR. I find myself never really getting the opportunity to use Tasigur's ability anyway, and if I am in that spot I'm probably very ahead anyway. I think for a deck like this vs. Grixis control we can utilize the extra power more often than we can utilize the Tasigur ability. Also milling Discard spells feels pretty terrible when activating the ability.
I have tried running 3 Angler / 1 Tasigur. Tasigur is significantly easier to cast on turn 2 and easier to sneak past Relic of Progenitus, of which Eldrazi Tron usually runs 4. The mirror matchup is actually one of the few occasions at which Tasigur's ability matters. The deck does not have a high creature count, so LtLH often benefits from extra mill action. It's also a good way of getting a Terminate ready for a snap-back, which is also important in the mirror. So I wouldn't say that Angler is "much better" than Tasigur. Maybe slightly better if the match doesn't turn into a grindfest and potentially worse if it does.
I recently replaced the 2nd LtLH with a 3rd Kolaghan's Command and like it so far. In the aftermath of GP Vegas, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity and Hatebears have become even more popular. LtLH is not what we want against Eldrazi Tron and often is too little too late against Affinity. Kollaghan's Command really shines in these matchups. Against Hatebears, Kollaghan's Command can be great if they have Bladesplicer and/or Tidehollow Sculler, whereas LtLH is just terrible in this matchup.
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Mishra's Bauble adds more air to the deck, which will inevitably result in more hands that look fine *if* we get a another land. I already have this problem with many hands that contain 2 Street Wraiths. I like that Mishra's Bauble can trigger revolt, but this comes at the cost of delaying a draw, which often makes it harder to plan ahead. My feeling is that Mishra's Bauble has better synergy with Serum Visions than with Opt.
Engineered Explosives feels so clunky in a deck that ideally wants to operate on three lands. I have been running a single copy for a while and have been underwhelmed by it more often than not. And that's coming from somebody who loved the card in Grixis Control. It's still OK-ish in GDS, but three copies seems over the top.
I used to be a huge fan of Kozilek's Return, but two damage on turn 3 or 4 often just doesn't seem to be enough anymore. Half of the board of the typical Humans deck usually survives it.
Rakdos Charm is another former pet card of mine. Kolaghan's Command seems so much better than Rakdos Charm against Affinity. It's nearly always a two for one trade and since Affinity is often hellbent after turn 2 and likes to cast its spells on sorcery speed, instant speed discard has been so good over and over again. Instant speed graveyard hate can be great, but most graveyard-centric decks are so low on interaction that it often doesn't seem to matter if they see it coming (Nihil Spellbomb) or not. Plus, about half of the graveyard decks actually run discard spells, so they can often see it coming.
A mix of Stubborn Denial and Inquisition of Kozilek seems better to me, because one of them tends to be a dead card in certain matchups.
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