The SB looks perfect, though I cant help but wonder if some Persecutes couldn't be worked in. Also, the Delays in the MD could be replaced with Rune Snags or Mana Leaks, as the 3-turn-later free spell could come back and bite you, hard.
EDIT: Just realized, Venser puts a beatin' on Hellbent Demonfires, though not as well as a Willbender.
Also, for the SB you'd do well to have an answer to some of the larger competitors Such as Dstorm, and Dralnu. I reccomend Shadow of Doubt or Aven Mindcensor as a 4-of, and some Leyline of the Voids to round it out.
Total changes:
-4x Brain Pry
-3x Hide//Seek
-3x Persecute
-2x Sudden Death
Might I suggest 4x Court Hussar and 3x Stormfront Riders in the place of 2x Dust Elemental, 3x Rune Snag, 1x Wrath of God, and 1x Venser, Shaper Savant. This will give you more men to work with, and token-making capabilities galore.
I'm gonna test this deck out with the following changes:
-1 This deck
+1 3color Dralnu
[/sarcasm]
Seriously, this deck looks solid, though i'm not 100% sold on the Willbender.(Yes, he does bend Split Second over and put rather large things into small orfices, but he has to be face-down at a cost of 3 to do so)
Personally, i'd make the following changes:
-1 Willbender
-3 Repeal
+1 Vedalken Aethermage / Pit Keeper
+3 Boomerang (I understand Repeal cantrips, but Boomerang can hit land and bounce anything from CMC1-infinity for 2 mana.)
SB
-2 Tormod's Crypt
-1 Temporal Isolation
+3 Extirpate (Hitting all copies of a single card is better than nixing the entire 'yard in 90% of cases I've come up against. Also, Crypt forecasts the Removal, making your opponent play more cautiously.)
No, because the ability of the Grave Scrabbler won't trigger until after it resolves as a spell itself, and that will be long after the Delirium Skeins resolves.
Well, I dont know about you guys, but I'm heavily leaning toward Pianna, Nomad Captain as the white legend, as it is very core set friendly, and the robes (not the hat/turban) look similar.
I'd say 50% Pianna, 35% Cho-Manno, 15% Lin-Sivvi
Also, the green-skinned guy on the boxtopper looks like Erhnam Djinn.
honestly I'm not exactly sure where I want to go with this deck. I'm more likely to drop white in the place of red if anything, running more burn for removal and possibly even a couple Iso scepters. This would allow me to run both Cunning and Burning Wishes and allow me to keep the Gelectrodes... I'll start working on a list in a bit. I'm extremely reluctant to rely on manlands as a win condition, so I guess that means the scepters are going to have to be in the MD.
To be honest, the Dark Rits are in there for the possibility of the turn 1 3sphere. The Goblin Welders are in there to cheat in the fat guys, though not having blue to drop them into the 'yard ,and this idea just being a random doodle on a napkin dont help that argument very much, now does it? The Pithing Needles were in there mainly to stop Aether Vial, Gempalm Incinerator, opposing Wastelands, and even providing a cheap Welder target. As for the Chalices, those were thrown in there to fill space, really. The whole idea started as a 'Slaver import and got thrown way off track when I saw the set of Stax stuff sitting in my binder unused. In any case, care to take a shot at a list?
No offense, but if the deck was meant to win with Manlands or a Decree, I'd be better off just playing an established list of No Stick, Scepter Chant, or just toss in some Standstills and play Landstill. If the Wishboard route catches your fancy, I'd opt for Burning Wishes, moving a Wrath to the Board, and giving a very good reason to keep the red in... The main reason I'm reluctant to change the deck though, is that Counterbalance requires a delicate balance (No pun intended) of CMCs, and the removal of red would drop the 3 slot to about 3, and the removal of Wrath and dropping the Salvager combo as a win condition would drop the 4 mana slot to nil.
I'm not exacltly keen on mono-blue either, as that severely limits my options for quality kill conditions, and removes the combo potential of the UWR build with Salvagers and Gelectrodes. I know it might seem like I'm being difficult, but the majority of the changes you'd make would unbalance the deck.
Cutting red means the deck only has one win condition, and an active Humility means I have none. Cutting Wraths means theres only 1 card in the deck with a CMC of 4, meaning its harder to lock them down. Granted, dropping red would add a considerable amount of stability, but the loss of Gelectrode as a win condition vastly outweighs that. The addition of Cunning Wish would be vastly benefical, but I'm not sure what to put into the Wishboard... As for current changes, I'm pondering these:
This deck is also untested yet it shows great potential but I dont have the time to test, fine tune, and generally push this deck to its limits. I don't know how it would do against any deck at all but I'm trying to get the flow of ideas going. I'll probably be making new lists for different decks, different deck ideas and possibly even just tossing random cards together. Hopefully, a tournament winning, or even just a viable deck to come out of these ideas. You know I might even try Zombie Tribal
I know an unproven and untested deck shouldnt be posted, but since the New Deck Ideas forum got axed, and I dont have the time to run every idea that pops out of my head through a testing gauntlet, I figured I'd just post it here and let you guys do it for me...
The sideboard is just something I tossed together on the fly.
As for matchups, if a Counterbalance and Top are played early enough, Solidarity is an Auto-Win, as the majority of their spells, including the bounce spells and counters they run in the MD, and even their High Tides get countered. As for Gobbos, I've got no clue how it'd do against a turn 1 lackey, hence the Bolts and STPs in the board.
EDIT: Just realized, Venser puts a beatin' on Hellbent Demonfires, though not as well as a Willbender.
-4x Brain Pry
+4x Necrotic Silver
Also, a few of these cards can be relegated to the SB, making more room for better disruption/burn and possibly Bobs.
to SB:
3x Hide // Seek
3x Persecute
2x Sudden Death
+4x Dark Confidant
+4x Char
Also, for the SB you'd do well to have an answer to some of the larger competitors Such as Dstorm, and Dralnu. I reccomend Shadow of Doubt or Aven Mindcensor as a 4-of, and some Leyline of the Voids to round it out.
Total changes:
-4x Brain Pry
-3x Hide//Seek
-3x Persecute
-2x Sudden Death
+4x Necrotic Sliver
+4x Dark Confidant
+4x Char
SB:
4x Shadow of Doubt or Aven Mindcensor
3x Hide // Seek
3x Persecute
3x Leyline of the Void
2x Sudden Death
EDIT: Nice call on the Cautery Sliver, but you also lack the raw power of Necrotic Sliver.
-1 This deck
+1 3color Dralnu
[/sarcasm]
Seriously, this deck looks solid, though i'm not 100% sold on the Willbender.(Yes, he does bend Split Second over and put rather large things into small orfices, but he has to be face-down at a cost of 3 to do so)
Personally, i'd make the following changes:
-1 Willbender
-3 Repeal
+1 Vedalken Aethermage / Pit Keeper
+3 Boomerang (I understand Repeal cantrips, but Boomerang can hit land and bounce anything from CMC1-infinity for 2 mana.)
SB
-2 Tormod's Crypt
-1 Temporal Isolation
+3 Extirpate (Hitting all copies of a single card is better than nixing the entire 'yard in 90% of cases I've come up against. Also, Crypt forecasts the Removal, making your opponent play more cautiously.)
I'd say 50% Pianna, 35% Cho-Manno, 15% Lin-Sivvi
Also, the green-skinned guy on the boxtopper looks like Erhnam Djinn.
I'm not exacltly keen on mono-blue either, as that severely limits my options for quality kill conditions, and removes the combo potential of the UWR build with Salvagers and Gelectrodes. I know it might seem like I'm being difficult, but the majority of the changes you'd make would unbalance the deck.
-2 Electrolyze
-2 Fire // Ice
-1 Pyrite Spellbomb
+3 Isochron Scepter
+2 Orim's Chant
4x Pithing Needle
3x Chalice of the Void
3x Sphere of Resistance
3x Trinisphere
3x Smokestack
1x Crucible of Worlds
Spells:
4x Night's Whisper
4x Terminate
4x Duress
4x Dark Ritual
Guys:
4x Goblin Welder
2x Triskelion
1x Pentavus
1x Duplicant
1x Sundering Titan
4x Badlands
4x Ancient Tomb
4x Bloodstained Mire
2x Mountian
2x Swamp
3x Wasteland
3x City of Brass
1x Barbarian Ring
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3x Damnation
2x Rack and Ruin
4x Hymn to Tourach
3x Bottomless Pit
3x The Rack
This deck is also untested yet it shows great potential but I dont have the time to test, fine tune, and generally push this deck to its limits. I don't know how it would do against any deck at all but I'm trying to get the flow of ideas going. I'll probably be making new lists for different decks, different deck ideas and possibly even just tossing random cards together. Hopefully, a tournament winning, or even just a viable deck to come out of these ideas. You know I might even try Zombie Tribal
4x Sensei's Divining Top
3x Counterbalance
Spells:
4x Brainstorm
4x Impulse
4x Force of Will
4x Counterspell
3x Wrath of God
2x Electrolyze
2x Fire // Ice
Win Conditions:
4x Gelectrode
2x Pyrite Spellbomb
1x Auriok Salvagers
1x Lion's Eye Diamond
1x AEther Spellbomb
4x Tundra
4x Volcanic Island
4x Flooded Strand
3x Faerie Conclave
3x Island
2x Plains
1x Polluted Delta
1x Mountain
4x Orim's Chant
4x Isochron Scepter
4x Lightning Bolt
3x Swords to Plowshares
The sideboard is just something I tossed together on the fly.
As for matchups, if a Counterbalance and Top are played early enough, Solidarity is an Auto-Win, as the majority of their spells, including the bounce spells and counters they run in the MD, and even their High Tides get countered. As for Gobbos, I've got no clue how it'd do against a turn 1 lackey, hence the Bolts and STPs in the board.
Can a Sunforger fetch and play the Development half of Research // Development
I know it asks 3 questions to determine this:
Is it Red/White?
Is it an Instant?
Is its converted mana cost <5?
And since it gets a yes to all 3, it is allowed, right?