Anyone other then me playing Urborg, tomb of yawgmoth? I find it amazing but my friend hates it.
The only reason I'd hate it is if you want to run several, or if you let a Blood Moon resolve. Running one over a swamp is almost strictly better, but... I don't run any swamps at all, and really have never needed them. If you run swamps you should run one instead of a swamp, but I wouldn't run more than one unless you really wanted to drop turn 3 Sudden Deaths, and I'd never run more than two.
Well, of course Deathmark is an exception; one mana won't make you tap out even early on, and by the time you can cast Mystical Teachings, you'll aim for Seize the Soul anyway.
Well, for decks, Boom // Bust will increase the power of a LD deck by a whole lot. Damnation will fuel a lot of black decks, although won't be played in good Dralnu decks. Radha might inspire a sligh-type deck, but probably not until Incinerate comes in, and unless there's other good burn like that.
As far as individual cards go, Dismal Failure will probably see heavy play after Gigadrowse rotates, and Imp's Mischief will probably see play in control on control matches. Keldon Marauders and Stonecloaker are both very good aggro creatures. Porphyry Nodes is very good against aggro decks, although it's pretty complicated so I don't know how much play it'll see. Riftmarked Knight looks pretty good, too. Simian Spirit Guide is awesome, although I don't know it's application offhand.
Tefari is a thousand times better against U/x than Persecute, and even Imp's Mischief on a draw or discard spell can have as big or even a bigger effect as Persecute, as well as being far easier to resolve.
Plus... you're not going to resolve Persecute against a deck like this. If your opponent has all his mana open, he'll dump every counter he's got on the Persecute, because he'd lose them anyway.
Well, since the deck is two colors, there's a limit on how many nonbasics you can run. Personally, I wouldn't top 8 colorless producers in a 2 color deck unless you run Signets, too.
4 Deserts are pretty much reserved automatically, because the deck doesn't do well against aggro in general. That leaves, at most, 4 more colorless nonbasics you could use. Most people here have found storagelands and Urza's Factory to be extremely helpful, which doesn't leave much room for Scrying Sheets or Mouth of Ronom, let alone the urzatron.
U/B-snow probably isn't going to happen because Desert, Urza's Factory, and storagelands are better than Scrying Sheets and Mouth of Ronom. U/B-tron is a possibility... but it would be far different from Dralnu. You'd have to go into Signets, Damnation, Persecute, Phyrexian Arena... honestly, it doesn't sound half bad, but it's definitely a different deck.
Honestly, I think that Imp's Mischief makes for a very good toolbox card... if you can find the space in the main/side. It gives you a serious leg up when used on LD, discard, or draw; although it's less good against aggro (redirect burn, Muldervine Cloak, and so on is about all you can do). It's also basically a hard counter in a counter war. The potential for 3 for 1 or more card advantage (plus countering the original spell, of course) at instant speed for just two mana makes it very good against control, but... again, only if you can find the room. I'd probably run it over a sided Cancel, although maybe not a sided Rewind...
Making an army of Akroma's does not mean Wizards would make an undercosted card.
Remember, when you play Akroma, you get more than a fistful of fun abilities, you get a 6/6 to attach them all to. A 6/6 ought to cost six mana, so all those abilities combined on Akroma only cost... two mana. Undercosted in my opinion, but there you go. Giving one creature a two-mana set of abilities ought to cost 14 mana? I don't think so. 7 mana is fine for something that doesn't actually even effect the field on it's own. Remember that old set of cards that just made you win the game straight up if you fulfill the condition? They only cost 4-5 mana. 7 mana to make it likely to win if you fulfill the condition of "have a pretty good army" is not only not overpowered, but I'd be shocked if it ever saw competitive play. Your version is just horrifically bad.
Indeed. And even if it were, there's still no scientific evidence to suggest that having black skin makes one more likely to commit a crime. It's not relevant.
Gonna play devil's advocate for a second- people from different backgrounds like that often have different subcultures, and a different culture is a possible reason to be more likely to commit a crime. So one's nationality and likelihood for committing crimes could be linked, but probably more through common upbringing than genetics.
Beleive it or not, and i dont want to push this thread back into anarchy, but i found that remand was more helpful against MGA than mana leak. (please dont shoot me!)
That being said, game one is your best bet since they will side in leyline of lifeforce and when that hits, you may as well scoop for the most part unless we can find a quick answer for it.
Well... I never said that there was no situation that Remand wasn't good, just that there was more that Mana Leak was good against. Yes... if you're playing against MGA, and if they manage to resolve a Ledgewalker and try to play a Mouldervine Cloak on it, and if they never manage to resolve anything worse than Ledgewalker + Cloak, and if you can last until you resolve Vampire, then Remand is better than Mana Leak. But... that's five "if"s. Mana Leak only has one "if", and that's "it works if your opponent can't pay 3 mana".
As for the second... I don't think that Leyline of the Lifeforce is exactly scoop-worthy. It depends on your sideboard, of course, but when they side in Leyline you side in creature removal, so you've got an option to play out while you're getting the mana to Repeal the Leyline. In addition to that, MGA tries to power out one very powerful creature rather than many medium sized ones, so your creature removal can do it's job on anything big, and you can just try to survive the swarm of 1/1's to conserve the removal while your options are limited. It hurts, but... not scoop-worthy.
I think Stonecloaker would probably be played over Whitemane Lion in most decks; you need to have played a creature already and given your opponent time to try to kill it, so you're probably going to be waiting a while before you can gate anything anyway. Stonecloaker gives you much more bang for your buck, and as an added bonus, is quite good against grave based threats. It's also good against counter based decks, since you can drop this EoT returning a one drop, then follow the next turn with something big if it gets countered*. If it's not already at least in the sideboard of Boros and Zoo, I wouldn't be surprised if people start putting it there.
*3/2 flying being a much bigger threat than a 2/2 vanilla.
Are you guys still positive on 4 MD rewinds? I personally have a 2/2 Dismal Failure split, but I might up it to 3/1 in favor of rewind.
In my opinion, it's important to have 3-4 Rewind, not just to be able to play more EoT, but because it's by far the most effective thing to use against Dragonstorm. Once Gigadrowse rotates I might consider lowering the number of Rewinds, but until then, they're definitely necessary.
I still disagree with all the hate you guys give Damnation. If I hadn't had one, my aggro matchups (and there were a ton of them) at JSS would have been much worse. If you're not expecting an aggro format, then sure, don't run them. Otherwise, they are, in fact, worth it.
As to Bottle Gnomes, I ran them as a four-of in the SB at JSS, because I couldn't get my other Deathmarks, and they work pretty well. They're an early blocker that can kill of plenty of guys (Savannah Lions, Bob, Martyr, Rusalka, etc.), and if they aren't killing them, then you've stalled out the attack. And when they do block to die, you gain three life. They work pretty well, and if it gets to Teferi, you can flash them into play. -Jack
The thing is, regardless of actual name... this isn't the Dralnu deck, this the Mystical Teachings deck. Mystical Teachings is one of the best draw spells of all time; reasonable cost, card advantage, card quality, instant speed, resistance to discard and counters... Mystical Teachings has everything a deck wants in card draw. Tefari is also quite good, and only deepens the theme of instants in this deck. Obviously, you can't play any counters if you tapped out on your turn, and Rewind especially rewards instants.
This deck is quite simply built to exploit instants. Medium expensive sorceries that need to be cast early on and have easily viable alternatives simply don't mesh well with this deck on any level.
Draining Whelk is an interesting idea, now that I think of it again; it gives you a finisher target before you manage to drop a Tefari. However... it is good against aggro, but I think you might end up not being able to hit anything a control player plays with it unless you're winning anyway. It's an interesting choice, but it might be better to make that another Tefari.
Spell Snare is definitely an early game card... I would consider dropping either a Rewind or Cancel for a third Spell Snare, and possibly fitting one in the sideboard.
I'm still against Darkblast as a tutor target... by the time you can pay 4 mana, you should be worried about more things than a 1/1, right? Depending on what it's for, it might be better to make that a Seize the Soul...
Speaking of, you need some Seize the Souls sideboard, at least. By far the best thing against the types of aggro that we're worst against, and that includes Damnation (because it's an instant).
Withered Wretch works far better against grave-based decks now than Extirpate. Everyone knows Extirpate exists, so they'll be tooling their decks to fight it instead of Wretch (which is better anyway).
I'd strongly consider dropping Damnation and Persecute from the sideboard; tapping out in this deck is a very bad thing. Not to mention you'll free up six whole slots in it.
I'd recommend filling it instead with a Spell Snare, Spellburst, 1-2 Seize the Soul (depending if you choose to have one main or not), Imp's Mischief, Grim Harvest, and maybe a Dreadship Reef of something. That would put you at somewhat of a disadvantage vs aggro, but considering your maindeck, I'm guessing that's not a huge concern.
- experimental usage of list to see if it makes my posts more easily readable.
And does anyone play Persecute or Bottle Gnomes in the sideboard anymore? Karsten's list has Bottle Gnomes. I know they rule Savannah Lions, Kird Apes, essentially counterspell a Rift Bolt while being able to block, etc. but are they really that good?
I'm personally against both. Persecute for fairly obvious reasons (simply not the deck for that), and Bottle Gnomes because they're moderately expensive as a sorcery, don't kill stuff outside of Boros (which isn't so hard anyway), and mostly just stall like Remand, but worse. Of course, I bet at least two people still run them and will yell at me that their testing proves I'm stupid, but whatever.
hi, I wanna try this deck but I haven't seen an updated list on the last few pages, would someone post hist list? thanks.
There isn't one list. There isn't even a basic list. Every single person here has a different version, sometimes radically different. Dralnu can be done in quite a number of ways, and it can additionally be tooled for almost any meta, which will be reflected in the lists. This simply isn't something you can effectively netdeck. If you want to copy off someone else's, you can read back through the thread... if you want to try making your own (and you should)... also look back through the thread. I'll list some important cards to think of...
Secondary (main or sideboard):
Mana Leak
Cancel
Think Twice
Careful Consideration
Last Gasp
Deathmark
Seize the Soul
Trickbind
Ghost Quarter
Toolbox:
Magus of the Mirror
Szadek
Spellburst
Extirpate
Withered Wretch
Shadow of Doubt
Sudden Death
Grim Harvest
"brine combo"
Urza's Factory
EDIT: Oh, yes, and Commandeer and Imp's Mischief, too.
- And I'm probably forgetting a fair bit of possibilities, too.
*Numbers given are fairly standard, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone had a number outside that.
DBZ was a pretty good show, but there where simply too many episodes. Like... if they took every 5-10 episodes and condensed it into the actually important parts of each, it would make for a pretty compelling story. I dunno, just feels like the DBZ people figured out they had a good thing going, so they only let one thing impact the plot per episode.
The only reason I'd hate it is if you want to run several, or if you let a Blood Moon resolve. Running one over a swamp is almost strictly better, but... I don't run any swamps at all, and really have never needed them. If you run swamps you should run one instead of a swamp, but I wouldn't run more than one unless you really wanted to drop turn 3 Sudden Deaths, and I'd never run more than two.
Ok... what?
1. No.
2. Imp's Mischief stops the card in question.
3. Imp's Mischief costs less.
4. No. Again.
As far as individual cards go, Dismal Failure will probably see heavy play after Gigadrowse rotates, and Imp's Mischief will probably see play in control on control matches. Keldon Marauders and Stonecloaker are both very good aggro creatures. Porphyry Nodes is very good against aggro decks, although it's pretty complicated so I don't know how much play it'll see. Riftmarked Knight looks pretty good, too. Simian Spirit Guide is awesome, although I don't know it's application offhand.
Plus... you're not going to resolve Persecute against a deck like this. If your opponent has all his mana open, he'll dump every counter he's got on the Persecute, because he'd lose them anyway.
4 Deserts are pretty much reserved automatically, because the deck doesn't do well against aggro in general. That leaves, at most, 4 more colorless nonbasics you could use. Most people here have found storagelands and Urza's Factory to be extremely helpful, which doesn't leave much room for Scrying Sheets or Mouth of Ronom, let alone the urzatron.
U/B-snow probably isn't going to happen because Desert, Urza's Factory, and storagelands are better than Scrying Sheets and Mouth of Ronom. U/B-tron is a possibility... but it would be far different from Dralnu. You'd have to go into Signets, Damnation, Persecute, Phyrexian Arena... honestly, it doesn't sound half bad, but it's definitely a different deck.
Remember, when you play Akroma, you get more than a fistful of fun abilities, you get a 6/6 to attach them all to.
Gonna play devil's advocate for a second- people from different backgrounds like that often have different subcultures, and a different culture is a possible reason to be more likely to commit a crime. So one's nationality and likelihood for committing crimes could be linked, but probably more through common upbringing than genetics.
Well... I never said that there was no situation that Remand wasn't good, just that there was more that Mana Leak was good against. Yes... if you're playing against MGA, and if they manage to resolve a Ledgewalker and try to play a Mouldervine Cloak on it, and if they never manage to resolve anything worse than Ledgewalker + Cloak, and if you can last until you resolve Vampire, then Remand is better than Mana Leak. But... that's five "if"s. Mana Leak only has one "if", and that's "it works if your opponent can't pay 3 mana".
As for the second... I don't think that Leyline of the Lifeforce is exactly scoop-worthy. It depends on your sideboard, of course, but when they side in Leyline you side in creature removal, so you've got an option to play out while you're getting the mana to Repeal the Leyline. In addition to that, MGA tries to power out one very powerful creature rather than many medium sized ones, so your creature removal can do it's job on anything big, and you can just try to survive the swarm of 1/1's to conserve the removal while your options are limited. It hurts, but... not scoop-worthy.
*3/2 flying being a much bigger threat than a 2/2 vanilla.
In my opinion, it's important to have 3-4 Rewind, not just to be able to play more EoT, but because it's by far the most effective thing to use against Dragonstorm. Once Gigadrowse rotates I might consider lowering the number of Rewinds, but until then, they're definitely necessary.
The thing is, regardless of actual name... this isn't the Dralnu deck, this the Mystical Teachings deck. Mystical Teachings is one of the best draw spells of all time; reasonable cost, card advantage, card quality, instant speed, resistance to discard and counters... Mystical Teachings has everything a
This deck is quite simply built to exploit instants. Medium expensive sorceries that need to be cast early on and have easily viable alternatives simply don't mesh well with this deck on any level.
- experimental usage of list to see if it makes my posts more easily readable.
I'm personally against both. Persecute for fairly obvious reasons (simply not the deck for that), and Bottle Gnomes because they're moderately expensive as a sorcery, don't kill stuff outside of Boros (which isn't so hard anyway), and mostly just stall like Remand, but worse. Of course, I bet at least two people still run them and will yell at me that their testing proves I'm stupid, but whatever.
There isn't one list. There isn't even a basic list. Every single person here has a different version, sometimes radically different. Dralnu can be done in quite a number of ways, and it can additionally be tooled for almost any meta, which will be reflected in the lists. This simply isn't something you can effectively netdeck. If you want to copy off someone else's, you can read back through the thread... if you want to try making your own (and you should)... also look back through the thread. I'll list some important cards to think of...
Primary*:
Mystical Teachings 3-4
Tefari 3
Spell Snare 3-4
Rune Snag 4
Rewind 3-4
Repeal 3-4
Dralnu & Skeletal Vampire (1 each)
Desert 3-4
Dreadship Reef 2-4
various U/B lands 10-12
other lands ?-??
Secondary (main or sideboard):
Mana Leak
Cancel
Think Twice
Careful Consideration
Last Gasp
Deathmark
Seize the Soul
Trickbind
Ghost Quarter
Toolbox:
Magus of the Mirror
Szadek
Spellburst
Extirpate
Withered Wretch
Shadow of Doubt
Sudden Death
Grim Harvest
"brine combo"
Urza's Factory
EDIT: Oh, yes, and Commandeer and Imp's Mischief, too.
- And I'm probably forgetting a fair bit of possibilities, too.
*Numbers given are fairly standard, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone had a number outside that.