The changes would be to drop all creatures and Karn, Scion of Urza. And replace them with three to four each of Kaya, Orzhov Usurper and Gideon Blackblade as the finishers. Gideon would be nothing more than a 4/4 indestructible beater.
I do love the new cards and possibilities for BW Control, but I don't know if you could rely solely on those 2 as finishers. Gideon Blackblade would seem to be better in an aggro-type or midrange deck that had other creatures; standing alone, he doesn't protect himself against opposing creatures attacking him and any random exile effect would get rid of him.
This is one of the primary reasons that I have been off of this strategy since its inception: lack of quality finishers. God-Eternal Oketra is a possibility. But here again there is no real way to maximize her potential.
As always, suggestions are welcome.
Lyra Dawnbringer, Angel of Grace, Doom whisperer, Seraph of the Scales, Etc.
The card is pretty sweet, but right now I believe moment of craving is much better. I am definitely an advocate for fungal infection though. 1 mana answer to elves, vanguard and a whole slew of other somewhat important one drops is great. It kills that pesky turn 1 stormtamer too!
So Frank Karsten had made an article talking about how he wanted to make Verity Circle work well. This is what I have started with. I have yet to try the deck and haven't created a sideboard. I wanted to see if anyone else was wondering about such a brew.
I dropped it, but I feel I was going too hard on the hero aspect. I believe a tempo/midrange deck is best. Maybe something like Applied biomancy could get it to where ti needs to be. The w/r version with heroic reinforcements could be sweet even splashing blue.
Revel in Riches has been a card I've been wanting to work with for quite some time now. I believe it could be a pretty sly janky deck. I have yet to test it out, but was looking to see if anyone else fancied a look. Suggestions welcome!
Probably going to cut Horns***gle from the main for some different early action or maybe a couple Revitalize
The meta is bound to be different, but last year I was surprised to find that my pirates weren't always dying and March could be clunky. This is a new meta, but some Nexus and Mono-U seem like they might not be putting the pirates in the bin. Given Grixis's historic difficulty with enchantments, Reclamation might be a lost cause.
Looking at the spoilers, Theatre of Horrors looked abusable. But I think it's not worth running Spear Spewer.
Three colors will kill me for sure sometimes. But I bam hoping the U flyers make triggering Ruin Raider easier.
My core concept last year was the Fleet Captains. Pirates are such perfect trade-off cards. None of them are unconditionally good. I still think they need to attack, so Ruin Raider is free or I am probably losing anyway.
I definitely want to surprise some people with March of the Drowned and Siren's Ruse. The extra mana compared to dive down is hard, but hey, drawing cards. It could promote rigging runner and make Settle a little worse.
Curious Obsession deserves some thought. I want to be more creature dense than Mono-U. What matchups can I run it in without working as hard as Mono-U does to protect it?
Ruin raider could as you both said, leave you in ruin. Also I know he isn't a pirate, but I think that's fine here as he won't be here for that purpose, you could always toss in Midnight Reaper just a thought!
Yeah I tend to agree on the going more midrange. Dovin is a weird dude. Sometimes he's doing great things, other times he's a dud. Teferi would be sweet top end
You might be right about Lyra, I just haven't had many games where she is a dud. She 100% hoses rakdos and white weenie atm. She might be bad vs U/W control and esper but those builds are really bad vs the aggro that is out atm.
Trostani did do work for me when I played your build, so I maybe have been premature about that one. I ran 8 games and beat golgari 3 times pretty handily. All token deaths on them after they removed the main threats. I did lose to enigma drake. I just could get it off the field.
I took out angel of grace for the hydroid krasis and i'm happy with that.
What about the shanna, sisay's legacy as a one or two of?
I played it at fnm and got really bad luck. The deck felt solid when I had a nice opening hand, but really bad if I didn't have hero. I'm thinking maybe emmara or something else in the 2 drop slot is needed.
Lyra Dawnbringer, Angel of Grace, Doom whisperer, Seraph of the Scales, Etc.
3 Tempest Djinn
3 Merfolk Trickster
2 Tempest Caller
1 Nezahal, Primal Tide
Enchantment (6)
4 Verity Circle
2 Time in Ice
Artifact (2)
2 Icy Manipulator
2 Chemister's Insight
4 Opt
4 Sinister Sabotage
3 Syncopate
Sorcery (6)
2 Mass Manipulation
4 Sleep
Land (24)
24 Island
Probably going to cut Horns***gle from the main for some different early action or maybe a couple Revitalize
4 Sailor of Means
Planeswalker (3)
3 Karn, Scion of Urza
Enchantment (3)
3 Smothering Tithe
Instant (15)
2 Vraska's Contempt
3 Mortify
4 Absorb
1 Chemister's Insight
2 Cast down
2 Horns***gle
1 Spell Swindle
4 Treasure Map
Sorcery (6)
3 Mastermind's Acquisition
3 Kaya's Wrath
Land (25)
4 Godless Shrine
4 Isolated Chapel
4 Watery Grave
3 Drowned Catacomb
2 Hallowed Fountain
4 Glacial Fortress
2 swamp
1 Plains
2 The Antiquities War
4 Thief of Sanity
2 Negate
1 Kaya's Wrath
3 Revel in Riches
2 Lyra Dawnbringer
1 Cry of the Carnarium
Ruin raider could as you both said, leave you in ruin. Also I know he isn't a pirate, but I think that's fine here as he won't be here for that purpose, you could always toss in Midnight Reaper just a thought!
I played it at fnm and got really bad luck. The deck felt solid when I had a nice opening hand, but really bad if I didn't have hero. I'm thinking maybe emmara or something else in the 2 drop slot is needed.