There are a lot of pros and cons to Aether Vial, and I think it depends on the play style. Its amazing when you have it turn 1 but an awful top deck later, not to mention negative card advantage. Of course the deck is trying to grind, and Standstill/Strix/Ninjas can do a good job making up for it.
Yeah, thinking about it, vial is super sweet. The reorganize the top of the deck one drop though, that seems bad, it doesn't have evasion and that effect really isn't that good.
Id keep Standstill at 4 and slide vial in. I also think Yuriko is much better than Ninja of the Deep Hours and Id play 3 and 3 or 3 and 2 rather than 2 and 4.
*edit* that being said,Thoughtseize may be a better lead off play than aether vial AND its better later in the game
I think the deck should be a slower, grindier deck rather than Tempo:
4x Judge's Familiar
4x Cloud of Faeries
4x Spellstutter Sprite
4x Baleful Strix
2x Snapcaster Mage
3x Yuriko
2x Ninja of the Deep Hours
3x Standstill
4x Daze
4x Force of Will
4x Fatal Push
4x Brainstorm
But having a bunch of ninjas in your hand is bad, they don't work together well at all, and if you're hard casting ninjas you are probably behind. Playing a bunch of 0-1 mana creatures and 7 ninjas is all in on the ninja plan, which I guess comes down to a personal choice, but Baleful Strix is an insanely powerful card on its own. WORST CASE its an automatic 2 for 1 if it resolves, and it trades with big creatures which are what tempo decks like these struggle with the most. I don't like playing decks built around synergies that involve cute pieces that are just bad on their own, like ornithopter and signal pest. But that's personal choice.
So I played against my friend, and he said that my deck is unfocused. "Is it a tempo deck or a Standstill deck?" he asked. The fact is, it's both, and it has to be, because I won't have Standstill every game. I don't think he analyzed the deck very well, since all the creatures are good with Standstill and provide tempo as well. I did agree with him that I should be running a 4th Brainstorm though. He also recommended adding a basic swamp, probably because he beat me and played Back to Basics twice in that match, but it's true that a swamp may be necessary so I've added it for now. This deck can play around B2B and wasteland pretty well without a swamp.
Although I didn't agree with his entire analysis, it made me reconsider my gameplan a little. I want to limit the number of crap hands and draws, and adding a 4th Brainstorm is a fine place to start, but perhaps I should alter my creature base.. The worst thing that can happen with this deck is having a bunch of Ornithopters and Signal Pests and no Ninjas.
Is 3 Ornithopers too many? Sure with Less Ornithopters I'm decreasing the chances of getting a turn 2 Ninja online. Even casting ornithoper turn 1-2 then playing standstill is a nice play. Can't pitch it to FOW.
Should I be running a 4th Cloud of Faeries, since I can go CLoud of Faeries then leave up daze, Spellstutter, removal or cast Standstill. It's a blue card to pitch to FOW and can cycle later on. Or should I cut down on them since it doesn't enable turn 2 Ninja.
Should I cut down on Signal Pest? Signal pest is not a free creature like Ornithopter and CoF, but it can increase the clock a lot and more copies increases chances of turn 2 Ninjustu. Can't pitch it to FOW. Should I run 3?
Again, I'm currently down to 3 colorless lands (3 Mutas), but thinking it's possible it should even be less than that.
First off I think you can totally be a tempo deck with Standstill, its an awesome card to play when ahead on board and punishes your opponent for trying to catch up.
A 4th Brainstorm is probably a good idea.
I was skeptical of the Ornithopter and Signal Pest plan before, having creatures that don't attack for damage seems unnecessary just to get that ninjutsu, I think youd be better off playing powerful one drops, like Judge's Familiar or Mausoleum Wanderer. I also think it would be a good idea to go up to 4 Cloud of Faeries, their a "free" creature and synergize well with Spellstutter,
Mana efficiency doesn't seem like it should be your biggest concern, considering all the countermagic is free you don't care if you tapout.
I want to get really greedy with this and play Baleful Strix, seems like an awesome ninjutsu enabler and something I've seen before: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?31714-Stilljutsu-UB-Ninja-Still/page2 This thread had people working on the deck last year and being fairly successful and they came to the conclusion of running 0 one drops because they weren't powerful enough.
I think you may have too many ninjas, my creature suggestion would be:
4x Judge's Familiar
4x Spellstutter Sprite
4x Cloud of Faeries
4x Baleful Strix
3x Yuriko
2x Ninja of the Deep Hours
I think 4 Mutas would be fine but maybe I have too much faith in 2 color mana bases
Yeah, thinking about it, vial is super sweet. The reorganize the top of the deck one drop though, that seems bad, it doesn't have evasion and that effect really isn't that good.
Id keep Standstill at 4 and slide vial in. I also think Yuriko is much better than Ninja of the Deep Hours and Id play 3 and 3 or 3 and 2 rather than 2 and 4.
*edit* that being said,Thoughtseize may be a better lead off play than aether vial AND its better later in the game
I could see cutting these for more "value" if the deck is a bit slower and the games go long but I think its still strong.
4x Judge's Familiar
4x Cloud of Faeries
4x Spellstutter Sprite
4x Baleful Strix
2x Snapcaster Mage
3x Yuriko
2x Ninja of the Deep Hours
3x Standstill
4x Daze
4x Force of Will
4x Fatal Push
4x Brainstorm
4x Mutavualt
4x Underground Sea
6-8?x? Fetches
2-4x? Island
1x? Swamp
ALSO: Watching this Pro Tour RN makes me really tempted to get Death's Shadow in here.... but Im not sure on that yet.
First off I think you can totally be a tempo deck with Standstill, its an awesome card to play when ahead on board and punishes your opponent for trying to catch up.
A 4th Brainstorm is probably a good idea.
I was skeptical of the Ornithopter and Signal Pest plan before, having creatures that don't attack for damage seems unnecessary just to get that ninjutsu, I think youd be better off playing powerful one drops, like Judge's Familiar or Mausoleum Wanderer. I also think it would be a good idea to go up to 4 Cloud of Faeries, their a "free" creature and synergize well with Spellstutter,
Mana efficiency doesn't seem like it should be your biggest concern, considering all the countermagic is free you don't care if you tapout.
I want to get really greedy with this and play Baleful Strix, seems like an awesome ninjutsu enabler and something I've seen before: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?31714-Stilljutsu-UB-Ninja-Still/page2 This thread had people working on the deck last year and being fairly successful and they came to the conclusion of running 0 one drops because they weren't powerful enough.
I think you may have too many ninjas, my creature suggestion would be:
4x Judge's Familiar
4x Spellstutter Sprite
4x Cloud of Faeries
4x Baleful Strix
3x Yuriko
2x Ninja of the Deep Hours
I think 4 Mutas would be fine but maybe I have too much faith in 2 color mana bases