To really get the most from your spectral procession tokens you will need 2-3 copies of ajani goldmane in your deck, although he is a rare and is probably 5$-7$ at your local card shop.
The reason why procession is good, is really about card advantage, spectral procession is considered a 3 for 1, meaning from one card you get 3 creatures, and cloudgoat ranger is a 4 for 1. And some decks just cant handle flyers, you can ride those guys to victory sometimes or block flyers also.
Dark_drac0 the reason why it is a blue splash and not a red splash is for access to card draw. If there was a decent black draw spell or creature this deck would probably be just black, white and in my opinion if I did splash for red it would be for blightning.
The thing with this deck is I dont have to get turn one thoughtsieze and turn two sculler for it to be workable, granted against control decks I love that but it isnt needed. For profanes, I have learned to use one early game usually on turn 4,5 to get back whatever early drop I had that died (sculler, knight of medowgrain or finks) and kill one of their creatures. I never do damage or give my guys fear unless it is for winning me the game.
As for 23 lands I have found that to be perfect, I very rarely get stuck on 2 lands by turn 3 and I have tested my land counts a great amount and 7 lands that make my splash color, that I dont need to have by turn 3. 6 of my lands dont tap for white and 6 dont tap for black. If I had the cash to spend on overpriced reflecting pools I would and that would also help me a lot. My biggest issue is to make sure I have enough white mana early game and I think I have that sorted out. Looking at your deck through it is very mana intensive early on, I dont need my big mana till later but you need to hit four lands and 5 as soon as possible so that may account for your higher land count. I have won games on 3 lands before and can sit on three lands for a couple turns, if they are the right mana.
Looking at your deck the lack of spot removal seems troubling (o-ring I think is very ineffecient removal, but the new set will have path which is great in your type of deck) but it seems your deck also doenst mind wrathing on turn 4 and dropping a bomb, so if that seems to be working keep it up. Also how often do you use the broken ambitions? It looks like your mana could support spectral procession. Post wrath or sweep it is very good, kithkin and faeries hate procession, depending on the situation it stalls or swings in.
Over the last few weeks I played my B/W/u deck and it seems to be doing much better. I have been 5-1-1 over the last few weeks. 3 wins against mono white, 1 win against faeries and 1 win against a jund ramp deck. My loss was to a 5 color deck and my draw was to a faerie deck. This is the new deck.
The change that made the biggest difference in my deck was putting in the Spectral Processions, this one card alone makes my matchup against mono white so much better especialy if I get my agani online first. I put cavaliers in the side for faeries and monowhite, I found it just wasnt good enough in other match ups. I also took espeth out, I found she was just a little too slow for my deck. I really had trouble cutting her because I was such a cheerleader for her but she seemed a little off in my deck. I also have sanctums in my lands because with adakars I was taking on avarage 5-10 self inflicted damage a game, with the sanctums it is down to about 3-5 which my deck has no trouble regaining and only 3 CIPT lands is not too much burden on the curve.
I am most worried about mono black creatures. The best monoblack creature in my opinion in standard right now is shreikmaw, and he is not in decks now because there is more effecient removal now and will be more. Black right now is the choice for the supporting color, it cant hold up on its own right now. I am most worried about blacks strength once lorywn rotates out, hopefully in the next two sets some good mono colored black cards are released to make up for the few cards that are propping up black right now. But wizards knows there will always be black players like there will always be blue players, burn players and white weenie players.
I also have to agree with the Reiver Demon explanation for the demon, If you look at the art for the alternate art of the demon I see a very wrathy effect going on.
Since this seems to be a release promo, I am guessing a boring but powerful but not powerful enough for constructed.
Obeslisk of alara
5
tap: add BUW to your mana pool.
tap: add UWG to your mana pool.
tap: add WGR to your mana pool.
tap: add GRB to your mana pool.
tap: add RBU to your mana pool.
I know it kinda looks messy so it may need to be formatted differently, but if it is like this it does give players the ablity to play Ultimatums on turn 6 a little easier, and would be a good sealed or draft mana fixer/excel but is probably not good enough for constructed.
I dont have mulldrifter in my version because I find the espercharm is just more versitile and helps me in the first match against decks that run bitterblossom and it opened up two slots in my sideboard which are the Glen Elandra Archmages
Looking at your deck though it seems that it doesnt really have a focus and may be trying to do a bit too much. It is removal heavy but also has early drops that are fighting your removal slots for your turn 2 and 3 palys. Also none of your creatures are really agressive except oona which is a 1 of. I like to run 2 of's my win conditions. I also realize that Ajani and bitterblossom together sounds great but with only 1 Ajani that wont happen all that often and your bitterblossom will be defensive where your deck needs a bit more aggro. I would try taking out the unmakes or two o'rings and adding one more mulldrifter and one more oona. Also maybe even remove a bit more removal and add another creature, you can always put the removal in your sideboard. The way I see this deck playing is put a couple threats early after you took a spell or two from their hand. When the opponent starts to stabalize, wrath, then drop an oona or get more card advantage with mulldrifters and espercharms. Also try running profane commands instead of the mannequins, a card that I am a huge fan of (it may be my favorite card in standard with finks a close second) and can win you games. It is not instant recursion but it is more versitile. Also I never like come into play tapped lands so try to find a way to cut down on them.
Played a bit of standard after the PTQ in my city (went 4-2 in the PTQ, but was unable to get into top 8 by tie breakers) And my deck went 3-0. I made some major changes and cant really call the deck B/W anymore. Dont know what I am going to name it now. Well my wins were against G/W ramp, 5 color kelpie and a wierd U/G untargetable deck. All wins were 2-0. Well here is the updated decklist. And updated record of the various versions of this deck is 17-8-1
The Archamges in the sideboard have been good in my opinion, I use them to protect my board position against 5 color decks and their game changing huge spells. And the esper charms are so good in my deck the only downside being having 11 pain lands to keep my mana needs well tended. Although this deck gains life quite easily so it is not that huge a deal, the pain lands and the life gain come to a zero sum game at the end most of the time.
by the picture on the precon, it looks like the main shards are still in place. I guess there will just be more enemy color cards but the shards are still intact... for now.
I would really like cryptic to be restricted in strandard because it is really annoying having to try to plow through what seems four of them everygame and the round going to time. But I know it wont happen, just me wishing.
As for banning anything in extended I dont think anything will be since thoughtsieze shuts down most of the combo decks, or a well timed sudden shock in others. I think they may ban some random card in vintage like lich's mirror because in testing at wizards there is some random deck a tester made that no one can beat.
The reason why procession is good, is really about card advantage, spectral procession is considered a 3 for 1, meaning from one card you get 3 creatures, and cloudgoat ranger is a 4 for 1. And some decks just cant handle flyers, you can ride those guys to victory sometimes or block flyers also.
As for 23 lands I have found that to be perfect, I very rarely get stuck on 2 lands by turn 3 and I have tested my land counts a great amount and 7 lands that make my splash color, that I dont need to have by turn 3. 6 of my lands dont tap for white and 6 dont tap for black. If I had the cash to spend on overpriced reflecting pools I would and that would also help me a lot. My biggest issue is to make sure I have enough white mana early game and I think I have that sorted out. Looking at your deck through it is very mana intensive early on, I dont need my big mana till later but you need to hit four lands and 5 as soon as possible so that may account for your higher land count. I have won games on 3 lands before and can sit on three lands for a couple turns, if they are the right mana.
Looking at your deck the lack of spot removal seems troubling (o-ring I think is very ineffecient removal, but the new set will have path which is great in your type of deck) but it seems your deck also doenst mind wrathing on turn 4 and dropping a bomb, so if that seems to be working keep it up. Also how often do you use the broken ambitions? It looks like your mana could support spectral procession. Post wrath or sweep it is very good, kithkin and faeries hate procession, depending on the situation it stalls or swings in.
Over the last few weeks I played my B/W/u deck and it seems to be doing much better. I have been 5-1-1 over the last few weeks. 3 wins against mono white, 1 win against faeries and 1 win against a jund ramp deck. My loss was to a 5 color deck and my draw was to a faerie deck. This is the new deck.
4 Caves of Koilos
4 Fetid Heath
2 Swamp
6 Plains
4 Underground River
3 Arcane Sanctum
Creatures
4 Knight of Meadowgrain
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Shriekmaw
2 Oona, Queen of the Fae
4 Thoughtseize
4 Profane Command
4 Esper Charm
4 Spectral Procession
Planeswalkers
3 Ajani Goldmane
4 Burrenton Forge-Tender
3 Wrath of God
2 Infest
4 Stillmoon Cavalier
2 Glen Elendra Archmage
The change that made the biggest difference in my deck was putting in the Spectral Processions, this one card alone makes my matchup against mono white so much better especialy if I get my agani online first. I put cavaliers in the side for faeries and monowhite, I found it just wasnt good enough in other match ups. I also took espeth out, I found she was just a little too slow for my deck. I really had trouble cutting her because I was such a cheerleader for her but she seemed a little off in my deck. I also have sanctums in my lands because with adakars I was taking on avarage 5-10 self inflicted damage a game, with the sanctums it is down to about 3-5 which my deck has no trouble regaining and only 3 CIPT lands is not too much burden on the curve.
Obeslisk of alara
5
tap: add BUW to your mana pool.
tap: add UWG to your mana pool.
tap: add WGR to your mana pool.
tap: add GRB to your mana pool.
tap: add RBU to your mana pool.
I know it kinda looks messy so it may need to be formatted differently, but if it is like this it does give players the ablity to play Ultimatums on turn 6 a little easier, and would be a good sealed or draft mana fixer/excel but is probably not good enough for constructed.
Looking at your deck though it seems that it doesnt really have a focus and may be trying to do a bit too much. It is removal heavy but also has early drops that are fighting your removal slots for your turn 2 and 3 palys. Also none of your creatures are really agressive except oona which is a 1 of. I like to run 2 of's my win conditions. I also realize that Ajani and bitterblossom together sounds great but with only 1 Ajani that wont happen all that often and your bitterblossom will be defensive where your deck needs a bit more aggro. I would try taking out the unmakes or two o'rings and adding one more mulldrifter and one more oona. Also maybe even remove a bit more removal and add another creature, you can always put the removal in your sideboard. The way I see this deck playing is put a couple threats early after you took a spell or two from their hand. When the opponent starts to stabalize, wrath, then drop an oona or get more card advantage with mulldrifters and espercharms. Also try running profane commands instead of the mannequins, a card that I am a huge fan of (it may be my favorite card in standard with finks a close second) and can win you games. It is not instant recursion but it is more versitile. Also I never like come into play tapped lands so try to find a way to cut down on them.
4 Caves of Koilos
4 Fetid Heath
2 Swamp
6 Plains
4 Underground River
3 Adarkar Wastes
Creatures
4 Knight of Meadowgrain
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Stillmoon Cavalier
2 Shriekmaw
2 Oona, Queen of the Fae
4 Thoughtseize
4 Profane Command
4 Esper Charm
Planeswalkers
3 Ajani Goldmane
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4 Burrenton Forge-Tender
3 Runed Halo
2 Shriekmaw
4 Wrath of God
2 Glen Elendra Archmage
The Archamges in the sideboard have been good in my opinion, I use them to protect my board position against 5 color decks and their game changing huge spells. And the esper charms are so good in my deck the only downside being having 11 pain lands to keep my mana needs well tended. Although this deck gains life quite easily so it is not that huge a deal, the pain lands and the life gain come to a zero sum game at the end most of the time.
As for banning anything in extended I dont think anything will be since thoughtsieze shuts down most of the combo decks, or a well timed sudden shock in others. I think they may ban some random card in vintage like lich's mirror because in testing at wizards there is some random deck a tester made that no one can beat.