I do like the 4 waste not main, since it's actually been rather versatile for me. It eats control alive, and I actually use it to generate blockers vs aggro. I am considering siding crux for anger. Anger feels more relevant a lot of the time. What are your thoughts on that?
Probably okay to go to 1/1 main with crux/anger. There's a fair bit in the format Anger doesn't hit right now, so having a board clear that doesn't care about toughness is pretty critical.
My view is that in this deck, I wouldn't rate Waste Not as a critical component. It's good, especially in certain matchups, it has synergies, but without a discard spell in hand it's a dead card, and you can easily win games without ever seeing it. And the second and third hold proportionally less value than the first. My personal criteria for a card like that is to run 2 or 3 main. That's enough that you'll probably see one most games, but reduces the risk of getting flooded with them.
Another way to view it is to consider what it would be like as a 2/2 or 3/1. How many matchups would you actually bring in the extras? If you lose game 1 to <arbitrary deck here>, is bringing in extra Waste Not how you're going to want to tip the tide in your favor? Control decks? Yeah, you probably want Wastes to replace dead removal. Aggro decks that mostly empty their hand by turn 3 or 4? No, that's awful. Midrange grindy decks? Maybe, depends on if they have any self discard or card draw to make sure your mid to late game discard effects have targets.
On cut, I could see price there honestly, but I felt with no other delve spells cut might be alright. It's a new addition so i'm not sure how i feel about it to be honest. Archfiend looks like he'd be a good choice, but at the same time I feel he might just eat a stoke. I could of course bring him back with command. Hm. What would you take off side for him? As for erebos, I think I'll just keep him as my "16th" sideboard card and stick him in my 75 as the meta swings. I do like that he's additional draw, and four mana is definitely manageable. I'm playing mostly online, so that's the meta i'm prepped for, hence the tons of hate for esper dragons.
Cut/Price is kind of a toss up. Having the unconditional removal is nice, as is the 1 mana option once you're into the late game. The downside is imagine an opening 7 that's something like: Cut, 3 non-fetch lands, A Dragon, and only 2 conditional disruption/removal spells like Command or Roar. You can't really mulligan that hand, but that cut isn't online until at least turn 3, and more likely turn 4 or 5, and possibly even later.
As for Archfiend, against tokens Stoke is a bit of an issue (though it's also one less stoke to the face), but Gw Devotion and GW aggro really do not have much a way to deal with it. For fitting them, I'd probably start with Mogis. They do the same sort of thing, ultimately. The other one is a little tougher, but I'd probably say the Draconic Roar is the most situational and least likely to turn a bad matchup good in the current meta.
I actually kind of like it. Waste Not is an interesting way to take advantage of having 8+ discard effects in the 75. My initial pure gut reaction though is that it's actually better as a sideboard against Control and decks which use looting effects like Monastery Siege, Sultai Charm, or Jeskai Ascendancy. That would leave space to bring cards main that shore up the aggro match up, like the Anger of the Gods. Not clear to me without some practice reps and knowing your meta which configuration is best, or maybe a 2/2 or 3/1 split of each in main/board, so that you can "tune" depending on the matchup.
Waste Not does make me kind of want Sign in Blood in the deck. It's a nice complement to Commune as a way to turn a discarded land into cards for you.
Crater's Claws is okay, though not sure I wouldn't just run a few more Stormbreath Dragon over it. On an empty board they do the same damage for 5 mana, Stormbreath can block multiple creatures (and sometimes even large ones, thanks to pro-white) over turns, and if they sided out removal can do much more damage over time, plus you've got Havens, so it's even recurrable. I just don't see enough synergies in the deck for Claws to make it worth running over hard removal like Price/Downfall or a more persistent threat. Even the minor advantage of getting a discarded land to pump it isn't that great, because you've already spent at least 3 mana just to cast the Command, and it restricts you do doing so at Sorcery speed.
Murderous Cut, I think I'd prefer something that was more reliably castable before turn 4 or so. I'd personally probably go with a Price, but I could see the argument for another Downfall too. I really want 8 fetches and some looting, milling or cantrip type effects before Cut becomes a go to spell. This deck's curve isn't super high, but it's not so low that you're going to reliably have more than 3 cards in your bin by turn 4 or 5.
One thing to consider for sideboard against swarm aggro is Archfiend of Depravity. It keeps decks which rely on lots of manifest, tokens, or just large numbers of mid power creatures down to a reasonable level. Another thing to consider if Whip and Mastery decks prove popular is Erebos, God of the Dead. Hard to remove, shuts off their life gain and gives you another way to spend mana for cards if the situation is dire.
First, gratz on the win. 4 Rituals is a little unusual, but I can see the appeal of using them as extra SSGs to get to an early Breach, rather than saving them exclusively for comboing off. Only thing I note is a lack of Night's Whisper or similar card draw. Lootings are great, but sometimes you just need to refill your hand.
The deck you linked is pretty odd. Copied here for discussion:
This deck is just packed. The shoal engine. The Soul Spike engine. The Fury engine. Mainboard Pacts and Boseiju. Footsteps + Wisps as an alternate reanimation plan. Sideboard breaches.
Not sure about the Chancellors. They do up the likelihood you can just go off on turn 1, but without Manamorphose or Pentad Prism, the only thing you can really use G for on T1 is aTime of Need or if you've got a perfect hand, as the 1 for Goryo's Vengeance after using an SSG to Faithless Looting. They do at least pitch to the Shoals for another draw 7, which is nice.
The Shoal package seems a little light. There's only 8 total green spells. On the other hand, you've got both the Soul Spike (18 black cards) and the Fury of the Horde (15 red cards) packages, which can effectively gain you life and thus draw more cards.
The manabase is either brilliant or a trainwreck. It's either very carefully tuned, but I'm not sure for what, or it's just the stuff he had on hand that mostly worked. Forbidden Orchard seems out of place (except maybe to make a target for Lightning Axe?) Boseiju is great, but at odds with trying to use Chancellors to accelerate a T1 play. And why Sulfurous Springs over Blood Crypt, since in a long game, a Springs will often do 2 or more damage to you?
It feels very all in. It's going to go off once, and if it fails, there's almost no chance it's ever going to rebuild and try again, as you're going to pitch your whole hand to one or more of your engines. But it does seem like it's got a very optimized engine for going off. Drawing 14 is almost assuredly going to get you enough cards to hit one of your 3 pitchs to let you gain life and draw 7 more.
I do like the use of Funeral Charm as a discard outlet that doubles as both disruption and a kill spell for certain annoying cards like Clique, Pyromancer, etc, and has the potential to let you slip past Lingering Souls via Swampwalk. I've been playing a singleton Lightning Axe as an instant speed discard outlet for comboing off. Charm may actually be better for that, though B instead of R is a minor issue.
Most of us are of the opinion that adding white just for Doom in the mainboard and 1 or 2 sideboard cards is probably not worth it. If you replace those with Foul-tongue Invocations and clean up the manabase for straight RB, you'll find your deck is within a few cards of a number of the lists people are playing over there.
I agree with that sentiment. While recurring damage for pressure is nice for a control deck, triggering Ferocious is difficult if you're not already in a stable/winning board state, at which point the extra 2 damage is not the most amazing thing ever.
Beyond that, I'll reiterate that this deck really wants at least 2 Crux of Fate in the 75, preferably main board, plus some number of either Drown or Anger (or both), probably about 3 of. Early game you can usually trade your removal for their threats 1 for 1. But eventually they'll reach the point where they can deploy multiple threats in 1 turn or your single target removal does not match up well against their threats (like a Wild Slash and Price in hand when they have Siege Rhino on board), and they will start to build up a board.
If you get behind on board, Crux is your best (and sometimes only) way to stabilize and then take back the initiative. It's not that you want to see more than 1, it's just that you almost certainly want to see at least 1, which is why 1 in a 60 card deck is just not enough.
As I've mentioned a few times, Mastery of the Unseen (especially in a deck like Gw Devotion) and Whip of Erebos (Abzan Reanimator and to a lesser extent Sultai Whip) represent the the strategy this deck bricks hardest on. The combination of lifegain and a larger than normal stream of threats means they can actually run you out of removal while withstanding your threats for long enough to matter. Unlike UB control, this deck doesn't have the quantity of card draw to keep up if they get a card like that online and can protect it. This is definitely one of the cases where discard is worse than counters, and not having enchantment removal hurts.
Other than that, any deck that's heavily control based is going to have some softness to good draws from Aggro swarm decks like RDW and Jeskai Tokens, especially if supplemented with heavy burn. This deck can keep up, but it basically takes more luck on this side than the other. Unlike the lifegain/reanimator combo cards, this is a match up where sideboard cards like Drown in Sorrow, Anger of the Gods, and some number of Bile Blight can help a lot, as can extra copies of Crux.
I also expect that any deck that's very heavy planeswalkers could present a problem, though I have not actually experienced that. The combination of Downfall and Stormbreaths, plus some number of Thoughseize, Duress, and/or Despise has generally worked out pretty well so far, but I admit none of the decks I played against had more than 2 or 3 walkers.
This list pretty much exactly illustrates what I was saying. You've made your manabase more difficult (adding 2 lands that cause pain when tapping for colors, and 4 additional lands that enter tapped, aside from reducing the effective number of red sources), for a net gain of 2 copies of Crackling Doom (since you could play 4 Foul-Tongues which have the same CMC and easier color requirements but otherwise do the same thing). If you go up to 4 Draconic Roars to replace those last 2 Dooms, you still have the same overall number of removal spells (and slightly lower average cmc and much easier colors), very slightly less offensive burn, and somewhat more lifegain.
Basically, you'd have to have a massively stronger sideboard to make up for the mana consistency you're losing mainboard. mrisaiahc's suggestion of Erase is obviously good, though I don't know if 3 are necessary. Kolaghan's Command already hits Whip of Erebos, which is the number 1 enchantment this deck doesn't want to see, and Downfall, Crux, and Sac effects all hit Courser, which is probably number 3 after Mastery of the Unseen, which is number 2. Secure the Wastes is interesting, but I feel that card is either win-more or do-nothing, depending on the matchup.
There's already more burn and direct creature removal spells in straight BR in standard than we can reasonably fit in this deck. And already enough very strong and reasonably efficient game ending threats to fill out the 10-12 slots a deck like this wants. There's also already more hand disruption and board control than you would reasonably want in this deck at one time. In order to want to splash for a color, it has to offer something this deck does not inherently do (or do as well as it could).
I just don't see the white splash adding enough to make it worth the instability in mana. Crackling Doom is great, but not enough better than Foul-tongue Invocation to be worth extra colors. So the only thing it's really offering is enchantment removal, which is not something worth mainboarding.
If you were going to splash in this deck, it would almost certainly be for Blue. That would give you access to counters like Silumgar's Scorn and Negate, and card draw/filtering like Dig Through Time. At that point, though, you're probably going to eventually merge archetypes with the UBx Dragon control decks.
Has anyone thought of splashing White for Crackling Doom?
While Crackling Doom is awesome, and probably the single best reason to play Mardu as a color set, I think that adding white to this deck really doesn't help it much. Foul-tongue does the same thing Doom does, for the most part, gaining life instead of dealing damage, but with much lower color commitment. You don't really need that many sacrifice effects overall, when you've got discard, targeted removal, and board wipes too.
Adding white would complicate the manabase significantly, decreasing your odds of having the appropriate untapped lands on the right turns in order to stay at parity with aggro decks, if you're adding Temples or Outposts. Or, if you go the pain land route, you're probably doing enough damage to yourself to allow those same decks to race. Either way, this deck is already pretty color greedy, and adding a third color really wouldn't help that at all.
There's no dragons in WR or WB, and Sunscorch Regent isn't the sort of game closer this deck wants, so you don't really gain any threat options there. The white dragon reveal card (Orator of Ojutai) isn't that good for the deck. End Hostilities is not superior to Crux of Fate in this deck, even assuming you wanted more than 2 of this sort of effect. The only other improvement might be some variety in removal, but none of the options in white are so superior that it's worth the decrease in mana quality. Off the top of my head the only white removal beyond Crackling Doom I might be temped by is Valorous Stance for its dual purpose ability to protect the few big threats. But discard, removal, dash and Thunderbreak's ability all do that pretty well too.
The one place white would help more than main is in the sideboard. BR does largely lack any way to deal with enchantments, so a few Erases or similar for Mastery of the Unseen or the various Siege cycle is something I've occasionally missed.
I ended up going 5-2 across 2 events, 1 loss in each. Lost to Mono Red aggro in the first event, piloted by a good friend who is a specialist with Mono Red in pretty much every format. Lost to Abzan Control/Reanimator, to another good friend who is a control specialist, in the second event. Both losses were 3 games and the final game could easily have swung the other way.
As to some card choices over what CVM is running and why I didn't choose them:
Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury over Dragonlord Kolaghan because I like the relative protection of Dash. It means that my discard actually does protect it, rather than being subject to a top decked removal spell the next turn. I also like CMC 5, and the fact that attacking with Storm's Fury plus one other dragon is the same as a Dragonlord plus that dragon would be anyhow. Dragonlord's second clause is narrow enough that I like Storm's Fury's upsides over it.
I prefer a diversified disruption suite. 4 Thoughtseize was just too much self damage, and splitting Despise/Duress 2/2 mainboard ensures that I have fewer dead cards in game 1 against any given deck and gives me easy cards to side out for my good sideboard answers.
Ultimate Price vs Bile Blight was a meta call, as I didn't expect a ton of tokens, and had the Anger and Archfiends in the Sideboard just in case. That said, Price is pretty bad against Abzan, being unable to kill any of their major threats, though Blight isn't much better, getting only Fleecemain.
Extra Draconic Roar and Foul-tongue Invocation over extra Hero's Downfall. This was primarily about colors and costs. The deck is a little weak to planeswalkers, but I also like the lifegain off Invocation and the damage from Roar. It's possible the extra Prices/Blights could just become Downfall 3 and 4, but I like having CMC 2 removal.
Outpost Siege/Chandra, Pyromaster split in the mainboard was mostly about respecting removal options from other decks. Outpost dodges Downfall, Chandra dodges Abzan Charm and Dromoka's Command.
2 Crux of Fate is almost a necessity to me. I'm tempted to play a third or move one of the Angers mainboard. You've got enough removal to handle the early game, but eventually they're going to land multiple threats, and you need to be able to clean them all up so it's safe to deploy your dragons.
I think my biggest difference, overall, is sideboard strategy. I'm not a fan of the sideboard Rabblemasters, as this deck is not designed to be the beatdown, and I generally play it as pure control until I'm sure the coast is clear and I can start getting in with dragons to close it out. I went with planeswalkers to shore up the control mirror, as sneaking a Liliana or Ugin in under a counter after discard tends to be very hard for control decks to deal with.
That said, I do like some of the ideas that CVM and BBD suggested in their wrap up after the match. Kolaghan's Monument had been in an early version of the list and I like their reasoning for possible inclusion, so I may try to get that into my list somewhere.
Overall, deck performed well, I'm happy with SB, but see Infect can be a problem
Regarding card choices: Tormenting Voices are better than Night's Whisper, because without them, there are only looting to get your fatty to GY.
Extras Rituals helps to combo faster, but 4 is too much, next time I'll cut to 3.
Still I need to find a quicker way for the Through the Breach plan. If only Seething Song was legal...
Pentad Prism is a semi reasonable option that's been used to accelerate breach in traditional Kahleya style builds forever. It's no Song, but it's generally as good as any other ritual and very occasionally fixing colors matters.
On the Tormenting/Whisper tradeoff, I initially started strong on Voice, but over time, the actual outright card advantage of Whisper has lead me to start using more of them. Sometimes I've got hand full of things I just don't want to discard, and there's nothing worse than having 2 possible lines of play, discarding one to Voice, and then drawing the cards you needed for the line you discarded rather than the line you kept.
In the old thread we discussed various non-Grisel/Emrakul fatties a few times. Most of those and a few others came up.
To me, the big strike against most of them is that as non-Legendary they don't work with the Goryo's half of the deck's game plan, which is a pretty critical flaw. The only reason Wurms even get a pass in my book as that they're so overwhelmingly good with both Breach and Shoal. If your goal is just to have Breach targets that are Green for Shoal, I'd probably consider Progenitus or Autochthon Wurm, as some of the earliest Shoal decks used. Progenitus is both enough life for another draw (and then some) and 10 damage that's effectively unblockable and unstoppable via removal like Path. Autochthon is enough life for 2 full draws and still a respectable 9 trampling.
But none of those can be used with Goryo's Vengeance, unlike the 2 Atarkas, which is why they caught my attention. A lot of the deck's power comes from being able reanimate a fatty on turn 2 or 3. Without that, there are other shells which get as much or more power out of Breach (like the RG Valkut Breach deck).
4 Manamorphose is too many, but needing green cards that you can pitch to Shoal is pretty critical. I don't feel bad about cycling the first 1 or 2 at end step to draw into action. I'd go down to 3 only if I was replacing it with another green card, though.
Time of Need is usually pretty bad, but when it's relevant, it's a lifesaver. If only it were Arcane, then it'd be much better. The place I usually need it is having everything to combo except a Griselbrand, or mid combo when I need a Borborygmos. I tend to cast it more in games 2 and 3, as a Thrun against control decks can often end the game by itself. I've had them scoop to just fetching it, not even casting it.
Also agree that more than 2 Desperate Ritual is probably a mistake. However, I personally have gone up to 2 in main, because having the only copy be on the bottom of the deck is one of the very few ways to fizzle out during a combo turn. The only time I'd ever cast it, pre-combo, is if I already had the second in hand, in which case using it like an SSG to Breach a turn sooner is fine.
As far as sideboards go, I'm very fond of Blood Moon, as posted about previously. Modern, and my meta in particular, has a few decks that are completely cold to an early Blood Moon, and we can drop it on turn 2 or even 1, with some help from SSG. And even matchups where it doesn't outright lock them out, it does tend to slow development enough to assemble the combo. The only strike against it is that a lot of people are noticing how strong it is, and trying to tune their manabase against it or even run it themselves.
Anyone have thoughts for a Dragonlord Atarka or Atarka, World Render in the flex slot for the Shoal version? Either is another legendary for Goryo's, perfectly acceptable Breach target, and green for pitching to Shoal (and X=7 is exactly enough to draw 7 with Griselbrand). Dragonlord has a nice ETB against decks with Souls or other aggro decks like Burn, Affinity, or WW strategies, while World Render does more direct damage (and is basically a 1+1 combo with a Griselbrand, assuming they take any damage at all from their own manabase).
I'm testing (without knowing that) a variation of Splice Into Arcane version, a more controllish one. I've started at developing it from Pitch Control topic, moving by myself in this direction:I've cut the white for blue and red, then cut the Soulfleyer too but now i'm in trouble, a bit. This is the list
My main problem is: i can control the game, playing in oppo's EOT ******* his counters and so on, can reanimate a griselbrand or a Orzhova but... even if i menage to get a swing, to close the game is the hard part. Before, between Geist and Soulflayer i could have 2 important cloack in the deck, but now... dunno.
Okay, first, let's start by putting it in deck tags and trying at least partially organize by function. You've got Polluted Delta listed twice, so I'm going to assume that one set of these is probably meant to be either Verdants or Tarns. Probably Tarns, based on your shock distribution.
This is... an eclectic mix of cards, and I'm hard pressed to figure out exactly what the full game plan is here. It feels very unfocused.
You've got a pretty decent core of a Goryo's Vengeance deck, 4 Goryo's, 4 Griselbrand, 2 Obzedat, 8 looting spells plus 2 liliana to enable, and a pair of Breaches. Not sure I like only 2 Breaches, but you can splice them, and you're clearly more on the reanimate plan. I also like the use of Obzedat to get extra value out of Goryo's. Not sure it has quite the same value in Modern as it did in standard, given the amount of instant speed removal in Modern that can handle it, but it seems solid enough, and it's a reasonable threat on its own, even if you can't ever actually hard cast it.
Peer is a very nice splice target which also fetches combo pieces. If there was a reason to be in blue in a deck like this, that's it. Ideas Unbound would also be interesting, serving as both dig and a discard outlet, but your manabase just isn't going to reliably support UU and still be able to splice on either Goryo's or Breach, along with casting your other spells in the first few turns.
Sickening Shoal and Whisper as splice targets are... okay. Shoal is a little lacking in black cards to pitch. You've got 20, which is more than the minimum, but over half of them you don't really want to pitch because they're pretty critical to your game plan (Goryo's, other Shoals, Obzedats, Griselbrands). Shoal also requires a target, which not all decks will oblige you to provide when it's convenient. Consider the mirror, a RG Breach deck, Storm, Amulet Bloom, and 8 Rack, all of which aren't likely to have creatures on the battlefield any given turn, unless they're actively killing you. Even Twin doesn't tend to have a lot of creatures on board when you're going to want to try for a Griselbrand reanimate. No target means you can't splice a Goryo's onto it.
Whisper is some decent added value as a splice, but you aren't really running quite enough looting to really fill your yard to be able to reliably splice it without interfering with the Goryo's plan, which means you're relying on Loam to help fill your grave yard, but you've only got 2 with only Peer to dig for it, and only 1 source of green in the whole deck, so it's not exactly reliable. As an arcane splice target, it's not horrible, but there are much more efficient removal spells in these colors, and not hitting black is a pretty big drawback in the current meta, between Tasigur, Siege Rhino, opposing Griselbrands, etc. It also makes the whole Splice package with Goryo's cost 6, which means it's not happening until probably turns 8 or 9, which is a long game in Modern. I'd either go with Murderous Cut if cheap/efficient removal is really the goal, Rend Flesh if the goal is to have instant speed removal that also can serve as a target for splicing.
Damnation is interesting, and I like in this context. It interferes some with Obzedat, but given the idea of not having threats on board, I like it as a 1 or 2 of. Being able to clear the board on 4 or 5 gives you a bit more time to develop your board and combo.
Not sure what to think of a 2 of Banefire. This deck does not look to be generating a huge amount of mana. Even including borderposts, you've only got 12 actual mana sources, and no rituals or accelerators or mana cheating. So it doesn't really feel like a kill condition, but a utility fireball and occasional Lava Axe, which seems a little at odds with everything else going on. If your goal is to close out games, then Lava Spike is a much cheaper way to do a few damage and can serve as a Splice target.
Snapcaster also feels like an odd fit. The only targets you're going to really want to flashback are Goryo's, but you've already got the splice plan for those. Beyond that, flashing back Damnation is about the only other thing you'd likely want, but you're going to be a long time into the game before that ever happens. 6 mana is a lot in a deck with only effectively 24 land drops, unless, again, you manage to get Loam going early. Likewise, Banefire isn't a great target, as devoting at least 3 mana before X means you're unlikely to be able to dump more than 3 or 4 more into during any reasonable game.
Loam itself is a little weird. The only real synergies it has in the deck are getting back fodder for discarding to Liliana and maybe flipping over a target for Goryo's. Snapcaster actually looks like it's a way to salvage the other things you dredged on accident. Beyond that Loam seems to exist only to try and cover for the greedy manabase that needs both 4 colors and basics to feed to Borderposts. You don't have any hand disruption to go with a Raven's Crime package, or any sort of "waste" lands like Ghost Quarter or Tectonic Edge to make Loam a powerful engine on its own. No spell lands or utility lands that you need to guarantee you can have on the board.
In the sideboard, you've got 4 Blood Moons, but not a single green source under it and only Mistveins (which are going to be Decay/Wear/Disenchant/etc targets) to give you blue. It also feels like you're pretty dependent on Loam/Fetches to reliably hit your mana drops and the Moons shut that off completely. You're a 4 color deck running spells that want BB, while hitting R, B, G, and U all in the first few turns. Blood Moon is your fear, not your answer. Beyond that, your sideboard seems quite solid.
Basically you've got a ton of "cute" little synergies between different parts of your deck, but no coherent game plan that I can see. I'd pick one aspect of the deck and try and focus on that.
If you're a control deck, you need more efficient removal (both spells cheaper in mana, and card advantage spells like sweepers) and a stronger disruption package, probably in the form of Raven's Crime to go with Life from the Loam, and maybe some straight up Thoughtseize/Duress type cards. Counters are also an option, as they go very well with Snapcasters as well. A few man-lands like Creeping Tar Pit might help.
If you're a reanimator combo deck, then you need a way to close out games once you're into your combo. Either something like a Griselbrand-based draw finisher like Soul Spike, Fury of the Horde, etc, or some more effective closers, like Emrakul, the Aeons Torn or even Worldspine Wurm, where one hit is likely game over. In this case, you also need to streamline your manabase considerably.
If you're a Loam/graveyard value deck, you need some more ways to put lots things in the graveyard and some better ways to take advantage of them. Raven's Crime is again a solid choice, as is Tasigur, the Golden Fang or Tombstalker. A few mill enablers like Thought Scour or Glimpse the Unthinkable could help, and you could tie this to the arcane package by using Death Denied or Soulless Revival (possibly with Snapcaster) in order to rescue your Delve creatures like Tasigur.
Another week of 2-2. Same Midrange Shoal version, with 2 Night's Whispers removed for a singleton Quicksilver Amulet (to give that another try) and a singleton Lighting Axe (as a source of instant speed discard in order to bin a Borborygmos mid-combo for just R).
First loss was a BGw deck that I kind of liked the look of. Raven's Crime, Loam, Liliana, Lingering Souls, Bloodghast, The Rack, Smallpox Inquisition and Thoughtseize, Ensnaring Bridge. Sort of 8Rack meets LoamPox, with a dash of classic Junk. Needless to say, he trashed my hand quite thoroughly both games. 4 Leylines out of the side only help if you get them in your opener, but not if you see 3 of them in the first 7 you draw instead after mulling to 5 looking for them.
The loss to burn was a bit disheartening, as game 3 I went off to try to beat a lethal suspended Rift Bolt. But unusually, I fizzled, having to use my 3rd shoal for X=2 with a manamorphose just to get to 8 be able to draw 7 more, and then whiffing on a shoal in the 7 drawn (but of course getting the Worldspine I needed for the previous shoal). It's pretty damn rare to fizzle once you've drawn your first 7, but I was low enough to have to attack to draw, and not to be able to get an extra 7 for padding and didn't get lucky enough to chain multiple Wurm shoals to dig out of the hole.
The highlight of the night was game 2 against UWR Twin. On the draw, I keep Shoal, Wurm, Borborygmos, Griselbrand, SSG, Goryo, Bloodstained. He plays Colonnade, and passes. Draw, pass, discarding Griselbrand. Turn 2 he shocks on Sacred Foundry to represent counter mana, and passes back. I play the land, go to end step. He takes the opportunity to try and Helix me. Since he's tapped out I tank for a minute and then YOLO. With the Helix still on the stack at end step, I go off. Crack Mire for Swamp, SSG into Goryo's, draw 14, shoal for 11, draw 14, Exile 2 SSGs, Shoal for 8 splicing Desperate ritual, draw 7, Ritual, Shoal for 11 splicing Breach for Borby, draw 7 more cards. After drawing 42 cards and losing 42 life (and gaining 30), win by dealing 36 damage with 12 lands to the face. The Helix still on the stack would have been lethal at resolution several times during the combo had I been forced to stop.
Plays like that are what make this one of the decks I keep coming back to.
Probably okay to go to 1/1 main with crux/anger. There's a fair bit in the format Anger doesn't hit right now, so having a board clear that doesn't care about toughness is pretty critical.
My view is that in this deck, I wouldn't rate Waste Not as a critical component. It's good, especially in certain matchups, it has synergies, but without a discard spell in hand it's a dead card, and you can easily win games without ever seeing it. And the second and third hold proportionally less value than the first. My personal criteria for a card like that is to run 2 or 3 main. That's enough that you'll probably see one most games, but reduces the risk of getting flooded with them.
Another way to view it is to consider what it would be like as a 2/2 or 3/1. How many matchups would you actually bring in the extras? If you lose game 1 to <arbitrary deck here>, is bringing in extra Waste Not how you're going to want to tip the tide in your favor? Control decks? Yeah, you probably want Wastes to replace dead removal. Aggro decks that mostly empty their hand by turn 3 or 4? No, that's awful. Midrange grindy decks? Maybe, depends on if they have any self discard or card draw to make sure your mid to late game discard effects have targets.
Cut/Price is kind of a toss up. Having the unconditional removal is nice, as is the 1 mana option once you're into the late game. The downside is imagine an opening 7 that's something like: Cut, 3 non-fetch lands, A Dragon, and only 2 conditional disruption/removal spells like Command or Roar. You can't really mulligan that hand, but that cut isn't online until at least turn 3, and more likely turn 4 or 5, and possibly even later.
As for Archfiend, against tokens Stoke is a bit of an issue (though it's also one less stoke to the face), but Gw Devotion and GW aggro really do not have much a way to deal with it. For fitting them, I'd probably start with Mogis. They do the same sort of thing, ultimately. The other one is a little tougher, but I'd probably say the Draconic Roar is the most situational and least likely to turn a bad matchup good in the current meta.
I actually kind of like it. Waste Not is an interesting way to take advantage of having 8+ discard effects in the 75. My initial pure gut reaction though is that it's actually better as a sideboard against Control and decks which use looting effects like Monastery Siege, Sultai Charm, or Jeskai Ascendancy. That would leave space to bring cards main that shore up the aggro match up, like the Anger of the Gods. Not clear to me without some practice reps and knowing your meta which configuration is best, or maybe a 2/2 or 3/1 split of each in main/board, so that you can "tune" depending on the matchup.
Waste Not does make me kind of want Sign in Blood in the deck. It's a nice complement to Commune as a way to turn a discarded land into cards for you.
Crater's Claws is okay, though not sure I wouldn't just run a few more Stormbreath Dragon over it. On an empty board they do the same damage for 5 mana, Stormbreath can block multiple creatures (and sometimes even large ones, thanks to pro-white) over turns, and if they sided out removal can do much more damage over time, plus you've got Havens, so it's even recurrable. I just don't see enough synergies in the deck for Claws to make it worth running over hard removal like Price/Downfall or a more persistent threat. Even the minor advantage of getting a discarded land to pump it isn't that great, because you've already spent at least 3 mana just to cast the Command, and it restricts you do doing so at Sorcery speed.
Murderous Cut, I think I'd prefer something that was more reliably castable before turn 4 or so. I'd personally probably go with a Price, but I could see the argument for another Downfall too. I really want 8 fetches and some looting, milling or cantrip type effects before Cut becomes a go to spell. This deck's curve isn't super high, but it's not so low that you're going to reliably have more than 3 cards in your bin by turn 4 or 5.
One thing to consider for sideboard against swarm aggro is Archfiend of Depravity. It keeps decks which rely on lots of manifest, tokens, or just large numbers of mid power creatures down to a reasonable level. Another thing to consider if Whip and Mastery decks prove popular is Erebos, God of the Dead. Hard to remove, shuts off their life gain and gives you another way to spend mana for cards if the situation is dire.
The deck you linked is pretty odd. Copied here for discussion:
4 Griselbrand
4 Simian Spirit Guide
2 Crimson Wisps
2 Funeral Charm
2 Lightning Axe
2 Nourishing Shoal
3 Pact of Negation
4 Goryo's Vengeance
4 Soul Spike
3 Time of Need
4 Faithless Looting
4 Footsteps of the Goryo
2 Blackcleave Cliffs
2 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
2 Forbidden Orchard
3 City of Brass
3 Sulfurous Springs
4 Gemstone Mine
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Leyline of Sanctity
4 Through the Breach
3 Wear // Tear
This deck is just packed. The shoal engine. The Soul Spike engine. The Fury engine. Mainboard Pacts and Boseiju. Footsteps + Wisps as an alternate reanimation plan. Sideboard breaches.
Not sure about the Chancellors. They do up the likelihood you can just go off on turn 1, but without Manamorphose or Pentad Prism, the only thing you can really use G for on T1 is aTime of Need or if you've got a perfect hand, as the 1 for Goryo's Vengeance after using an SSG to Faithless Looting. They do at least pitch to the Shoals for another draw 7, which is nice.
The Shoal package seems a little light. There's only 8 total green spells. On the other hand, you've got both the Soul Spike (18 black cards) and the Fury of the Horde (15 red cards) packages, which can effectively gain you life and thus draw more cards.
The manabase is either brilliant or a trainwreck. It's either very carefully tuned, but I'm not sure for what, or it's just the stuff he had on hand that mostly worked. Forbidden Orchard seems out of place (except maybe to make a target for Lightning Axe?) Boseiju is great, but at odds with trying to use Chancellors to accelerate a T1 play. And why Sulfurous Springs over Blood Crypt, since in a long game, a Springs will often do 2 or more damage to you?
It feels very all in. It's going to go off once, and if it fails, there's almost no chance it's ever going to rebuild and try again, as you're going to pitch your whole hand to one or more of your engines. But it does seem like it's got a very optimized engine for going off. Drawing 14 is almost assuredly going to get you enough cards to hit one of your 3 pitchs to let you gain life and draw 7 more.
I do like the use of Funeral Charm as a discard outlet that doubles as both disruption and a kill spell for certain annoying cards like Clique, Pyromancer, etc, and has the potential to let you slip past Lingering Souls via Swampwalk. I've been playing a singleton Lightning Axe as an instant speed discard outlet for comboing off. Charm may actually be better for that, though B instead of R is a minor issue.
Most of us are of the opinion that adding white just for Doom in the mainboard and 1 or 2 sideboard cards is probably not worth it. If you replace those with Foul-tongue Invocations and clean up the manabase for straight RB, you'll find your deck is within a few cards of a number of the lists people are playing over there.
Beyond that, I'll reiterate that this deck really wants at least 2 Crux of Fate in the 75, preferably main board, plus some number of either Drown or Anger (or both), probably about 3 of. Early game you can usually trade your removal for their threats 1 for 1. But eventually they'll reach the point where they can deploy multiple threats in 1 turn or your single target removal does not match up well against their threats (like a Wild Slash and Price in hand when they have Siege Rhino on board), and they will start to build up a board.
If you get behind on board, Crux is your best (and sometimes only) way to stabilize and then take back the initiative. It's not that you want to see more than 1, it's just that you almost certainly want to see at least 1, which is why 1 in a 60 card deck is just not enough.
Other than that, any deck that's heavily control based is going to have some softness to good draws from Aggro swarm decks like RDW and Jeskai Tokens, especially if supplemented with heavy burn. This deck can keep up, but it basically takes more luck on this side than the other. Unlike the lifegain/reanimator combo cards, this is a match up where sideboard cards like Drown in Sorrow, Anger of the Gods, and some number of Bile Blight can help a lot, as can extra copies of Crux.
I also expect that any deck that's very heavy planeswalkers could present a problem, though I have not actually experienced that. The combination of Downfall and Stormbreaths, plus some number of Thoughseize, Duress, and/or Despise has generally worked out pretty well so far, but I admit none of the decks I played against had more than 2 or 3 walkers.
This list pretty much exactly illustrates what I was saying. You've made your manabase more difficult (adding 2 lands that cause pain when tapping for colors, and 4 additional lands that enter tapped, aside from reducing the effective number of red sources), for a net gain of 2 copies of Crackling Doom (since you could play 4 Foul-Tongues which have the same CMC and easier color requirements but otherwise do the same thing). If you go up to 4 Draconic Roars to replace those last 2 Dooms, you still have the same overall number of removal spells (and slightly lower average cmc and much easier colors), very slightly less offensive burn, and somewhat more lifegain.
Basically, you'd have to have a massively stronger sideboard to make up for the mana consistency you're losing mainboard. mrisaiahc's suggestion of Erase is obviously good, though I don't know if 3 are necessary. Kolaghan's Command already hits Whip of Erebos, which is the number 1 enchantment this deck doesn't want to see, and Downfall, Crux, and Sac effects all hit Courser, which is probably number 3 after Mastery of the Unseen, which is number 2. Secure the Wastes is interesting, but I feel that card is either win-more or do-nothing, depending on the matchup.
There's already more burn and direct creature removal spells in straight BR in standard than we can reasonably fit in this deck. And already enough very strong and reasonably efficient game ending threats to fill out the 10-12 slots a deck like this wants. There's also already more hand disruption and board control than you would reasonably want in this deck at one time. In order to want to splash for a color, it has to offer something this deck does not inherently do (or do as well as it could).
I just don't see the white splash adding enough to make it worth the instability in mana. Crackling Doom is great, but not enough better than Foul-tongue Invocation to be worth extra colors. So the only thing it's really offering is enchantment removal, which is not something worth mainboarding.
If you were going to splash in this deck, it would almost certainly be for Blue. That would give you access to counters like Silumgar's Scorn and Negate, and card draw/filtering like Dig Through Time. At that point, though, you're probably going to eventually merge archetypes with the UBx Dragon control decks.
While Crackling Doom is awesome, and probably the single best reason to play Mardu as a color set, I think that adding white to this deck really doesn't help it much. Foul-tongue does the same thing Doom does, for the most part, gaining life instead of dealing damage, but with much lower color commitment. You don't really need that many sacrifice effects overall, when you've got discard, targeted removal, and board wipes too.
Adding white would complicate the manabase significantly, decreasing your odds of having the appropriate untapped lands on the right turns in order to stay at parity with aggro decks, if you're adding Temples or Outposts. Or, if you go the pain land route, you're probably doing enough damage to yourself to allow those same decks to race. Either way, this deck is already pretty color greedy, and adding a third color really wouldn't help that at all.
There's no dragons in WR or WB, and Sunscorch Regent isn't the sort of game closer this deck wants, so you don't really gain any threat options there. The white dragon reveal card (Orator of Ojutai) isn't that good for the deck. End Hostilities is not superior to Crux of Fate in this deck, even assuming you wanted more than 2 of this sort of effect. The only other improvement might be some variety in removal, but none of the options in white are so superior that it's worth the decrease in mana quality. Off the top of my head the only white removal beyond Crackling Doom I might be temped by is Valorous Stance for its dual purpose ability to protect the few big threats. But discard, removal, dash and Thunderbreak's ability all do that pretty well too.
The one place white would help more than main is in the sideboard. BR does largely lack any way to deal with enchantments, so a few Erases or similar for Mastery of the Unseen or the various Siege cycle is something I've occasionally missed.
4 Thunderbreak Regent
2 Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury
4 Stormbreath Dragon
Sorceries:10
2 Despise
2 Duress
2 Thoughtseize
2 Read the Bones
2 Crux of Fate
Instants:14
4 Draconic Roar
2 Ultimate Price
4 Foul-Tongue Invocation
2 Hero's Downfall
2 Kolaghan's Command
1 Outpost Siege
Others:1
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
Lands:24
4 Bloodfell Caves
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Haven of the Spirit Dragon
4 Mountain
5 Swamp
4 Temple of Malice
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Archfiend of Depravity
2 Duress
2 Thoughtseize
3 Anger of the Gods
2 Kolaghan's Command
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
2 Liliana Vess
1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
I ended up going 5-2 across 2 events, 1 loss in each. Lost to Mono Red aggro in the first event, piloted by a good friend who is a specialist with Mono Red in pretty much every format. Lost to Abzan Control/Reanimator, to another good friend who is a control specialist, in the second event. Both losses were 3 games and the final game could easily have swung the other way.
As to some card choices over what CVM is running and why I didn't choose them:
I think my biggest difference, overall, is sideboard strategy. I'm not a fan of the sideboard Rabblemasters, as this deck is not designed to be the beatdown, and I generally play it as pure control until I'm sure the coast is clear and I can start getting in with dragons to close it out. I went with planeswalkers to shore up the control mirror, as sneaking a Liliana or Ugin in under a counter after discard tends to be very hard for control decks to deal with.
That said, I do like some of the ideas that CVM and BBD suggested in their wrap up after the match. Kolaghan's Monument had been in an early version of the list and I like their reasoning for possible inclusion, so I may try to get that into my list somewhere.
Pentad Prism is a semi reasonable option that's been used to accelerate breach in traditional Kahleya style builds forever. It's no Song, but it's generally as good as any other ritual and very occasionally fixing colors matters.
On the Tormenting/Whisper tradeoff, I initially started strong on Voice, but over time, the actual outright card advantage of Whisper has lead me to start using more of them. Sometimes I've got hand full of things I just don't want to discard, and there's nothing worse than having 2 possible lines of play, discarding one to Voice, and then drawing the cards you needed for the line you discarded rather than the line you kept.
To me, the big strike against most of them is that as non-Legendary they don't work with the Goryo's half of the deck's game plan, which is a pretty critical flaw. The only reason Wurms even get a pass in my book as that they're so overwhelmingly good with both Breach and Shoal. If your goal is just to have Breach targets that are Green for Shoal, I'd probably consider Progenitus or Autochthon Wurm, as some of the earliest Shoal decks used. Progenitus is both enough life for another draw (and then some) and 10 damage that's effectively unblockable and unstoppable via removal like Path. Autochthon is enough life for 2 full draws and still a respectable 9 trampling.
But none of those can be used with Goryo's Vengeance, unlike the 2 Atarkas, which is why they caught my attention. A lot of the deck's power comes from being able reanimate a fatty on turn 2 or 3. Without that, there are other shells which get as much or more power out of Breach (like the RG Valkut Breach deck).
4 Manamorphose is too many, but needing green cards that you can pitch to Shoal is pretty critical. I don't feel bad about cycling the first 1 or 2 at end step to draw into action. I'd go down to 3 only if I was replacing it with another green card, though.
Time of Need is usually pretty bad, but when it's relevant, it's a lifesaver. If only it were Arcane, then it'd be much better. The place I usually need it is having everything to combo except a Griselbrand, or mid combo when I need a Borborygmos. I tend to cast it more in games 2 and 3, as a Thrun against control decks can often end the game by itself. I've had them scoop to just fetching it, not even casting it.
Also agree that more than 2 Desperate Ritual is probably a mistake. However, I personally have gone up to 2 in main, because having the only copy be on the bottom of the deck is one of the very few ways to fizzle out during a combo turn. The only time I'd ever cast it, pre-combo, is if I already had the second in hand, in which case using it like an SSG to Breach a turn sooner is fine.
As far as sideboards go, I'm very fond of Blood Moon, as posted about previously. Modern, and my meta in particular, has a few decks that are completely cold to an early Blood Moon, and we can drop it on turn 2 or even 1, with some help from SSG. And even matchups where it doesn't outright lock them out, it does tend to slow development enough to assemble the combo. The only strike against it is that a lot of people are noticing how strong it is, and trying to tune their manabase against it or even run it themselves.
Anyone have thoughts for a Dragonlord Atarka or Atarka, World Render in the flex slot for the Shoal version? Either is another legendary for Goryo's, perfectly acceptable Breach target, and green for pitching to Shoal (and X=7 is exactly enough to draw 7 with Griselbrand). Dragonlord has a nice ETB against decks with Souls or other aggro decks like Burn, Affinity, or WW strategies, while World Render does more direct damage (and is basically a 1+1 combo with a Griselbrand, assuming they take any damage at all from their own manabase).
Okay, first, let's start by putting it in deck tags and trying at least partially organize by function. You've got Polluted Delta listed twice, so I'm going to assume that one set of these is probably meant to be either Verdants or Tarns. Probably Tarns, based on your shock distribution.
2 Obzedat, Ghost Council
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Goryo's Vengeance
2 Through the Breach
4 Faithless Looting
4 Tormenting Voice
4 Peer Through Depths
4 Sickening Shoal
2 Horobi's Whisper
2 Life from the Loam
1 Damnation
2 Liliana of the Veil
2 Banefire
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Swamp
1 Mountain
2 Blood Crypt
2 Watery Grave
1 Steam Vents
1 Stomping Ground
2 Surgical Extraction
4 Blood Moon
1 Pyroclasm
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Thoughtseize
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Damnation
This is... an eclectic mix of cards, and I'm hard pressed to figure out exactly what the full game plan is here. It feels very unfocused.
You've got a pretty decent core of a Goryo's Vengeance deck, 4 Goryo's, 4 Griselbrand, 2 Obzedat, 8 looting spells plus 2 liliana to enable, and a pair of Breaches. Not sure I like only 2 Breaches, but you can splice them, and you're clearly more on the reanimate plan. I also like the use of Obzedat to get extra value out of Goryo's. Not sure it has quite the same value in Modern as it did in standard, given the amount of instant speed removal in Modern that can handle it, but it seems solid enough, and it's a reasonable threat on its own, even if you can't ever actually hard cast it.
Peer is a very nice splice target which also fetches combo pieces. If there was a reason to be in blue in a deck like this, that's it. Ideas Unbound would also be interesting, serving as both dig and a discard outlet, but your manabase just isn't going to reliably support UU and still be able to splice on either Goryo's or Breach, along with casting your other spells in the first few turns.
Sickening Shoal and Whisper as splice targets are... okay. Shoal is a little lacking in black cards to pitch. You've got 20, which is more than the minimum, but over half of them you don't really want to pitch because they're pretty critical to your game plan (Goryo's, other Shoals, Obzedats, Griselbrands). Shoal also requires a target, which not all decks will oblige you to provide when it's convenient. Consider the mirror, a RG Breach deck, Storm, Amulet Bloom, and 8 Rack, all of which aren't likely to have creatures on the battlefield any given turn, unless they're actively killing you. Even Twin doesn't tend to have a lot of creatures on board when you're going to want to try for a Griselbrand reanimate. No target means you can't splice a Goryo's onto it.
Whisper is some decent added value as a splice, but you aren't really running quite enough looting to really fill your yard to be able to reliably splice it without interfering with the Goryo's plan, which means you're relying on Loam to help fill your grave yard, but you've only got 2 with only Peer to dig for it, and only 1 source of green in the whole deck, so it's not exactly reliable. As an arcane splice target, it's not horrible, but there are much more efficient removal spells in these colors, and not hitting black is a pretty big drawback in the current meta, between Tasigur, Siege Rhino, opposing Griselbrands, etc. It also makes the whole Splice package with Goryo's cost 6, which means it's not happening until probably turns 8 or 9, which is a long game in Modern. I'd either go with Murderous Cut if cheap/efficient removal is really the goal, Rend Flesh if the goal is to have instant speed removal that also can serve as a target for splicing.
Damnation is interesting, and I like in this context. It interferes some with Obzedat, but given the idea of not having threats on board, I like it as a 1 or 2 of. Being able to clear the board on 4 or 5 gives you a bit more time to develop your board and combo.
Not sure what to think of a 2 of Banefire. This deck does not look to be generating a huge amount of mana. Even including borderposts, you've only got 12 actual mana sources, and no rituals or accelerators or mana cheating. So it doesn't really feel like a kill condition, but a utility fireball and occasional Lava Axe, which seems a little at odds with everything else going on. If your goal is to close out games, then Lava Spike is a much cheaper way to do a few damage and can serve as a Splice target.
Snapcaster also feels like an odd fit. The only targets you're going to really want to flashback are Goryo's, but you've already got the splice plan for those. Beyond that, flashing back Damnation is about the only other thing you'd likely want, but you're going to be a long time into the game before that ever happens. 6 mana is a lot in a deck with only effectively 24 land drops, unless, again, you manage to get Loam going early. Likewise, Banefire isn't a great target, as devoting at least 3 mana before X means you're unlikely to be able to dump more than 3 or 4 more into during any reasonable game.
Loam itself is a little weird. The only real synergies it has in the deck are getting back fodder for discarding to Liliana and maybe flipping over a target for Goryo's. Snapcaster actually looks like it's a way to salvage the other things you dredged on accident. Beyond that Loam seems to exist only to try and cover for the greedy manabase that needs both 4 colors and basics to feed to Borderposts. You don't have any hand disruption to go with a Raven's Crime package, or any sort of "waste" lands like Ghost Quarter or Tectonic Edge to make Loam a powerful engine on its own. No spell lands or utility lands that you need to guarantee you can have on the board.
In the sideboard, you've got 4 Blood Moons, but not a single green source under it and only Mistveins (which are going to be Decay/Wear/Disenchant/etc targets) to give you blue. It also feels like you're pretty dependent on Loam/Fetches to reliably hit your mana drops and the Moons shut that off completely. You're a 4 color deck running spells that want BB, while hitting R, B, G, and U all in the first few turns. Blood Moon is your fear, not your answer. Beyond that, your sideboard seems quite solid.
Basically you've got a ton of "cute" little synergies between different parts of your deck, but no coherent game plan that I can see. I'd pick one aspect of the deck and try and focus on that.
If you're a control deck, you need more efficient removal (both spells cheaper in mana, and card advantage spells like sweepers) and a stronger disruption package, probably in the form of Raven's Crime to go with Life from the Loam, and maybe some straight up Thoughtseize/Duress type cards. Counters are also an option, as they go very well with Snapcasters as well. A few man-lands like Creeping Tar Pit might help.
If you're a reanimator combo deck, then you need a way to close out games once you're into your combo. Either something like a Griselbrand-based draw finisher like Soul Spike, Fury of the Horde, etc, or some more effective closers, like Emrakul, the Aeons Torn or even Worldspine Wurm, where one hit is likely game over. In this case, you also need to streamline your manabase considerably.
If you're a Loam/graveyard value deck, you need some more ways to put lots things in the graveyard and some better ways to take advantage of them. Raven's Crime is again a solid choice, as is Tasigur, the Golden Fang or Tombstalker. A few mill enablers like Thought Scour or Glimpse the Unthinkable could help, and you could tie this to the arcane package by using Death Denied or Soulless Revival (possibly with Snapcaster) in order to rescue your Delve creatures like Tasigur.
That's why you need Leonin Shikari.
First loss was a BGw deck that I kind of liked the look of. Raven's Crime, Loam, Liliana, Lingering Souls, Bloodghast, The Rack, Smallpox Inquisition and Thoughtseize, Ensnaring Bridge. Sort of 8Rack meets LoamPox, with a dash of classic Junk. Needless to say, he trashed my hand quite thoroughly both games. 4 Leylines out of the side only help if you get them in your opener, but not if you see 3 of them in the first 7 you draw instead after mulling to 5 looking for them.
The loss to burn was a bit disheartening, as game 3 I went off to try to beat a lethal suspended Rift Bolt. But unusually, I fizzled, having to use my 3rd shoal for X=2 with a manamorphose just to get to 8 be able to draw 7 more, and then whiffing on a shoal in the 7 drawn (but of course getting the Worldspine I needed for the previous shoal). It's pretty damn rare to fizzle once you've drawn your first 7, but I was low enough to have to attack to draw, and not to be able to get an extra 7 for padding and didn't get lucky enough to chain multiple Wurm shoals to dig out of the hole.
The highlight of the night was game 2 against UWR Twin. On the draw, I keep Shoal, Wurm, Borborygmos, Griselbrand, SSG, Goryo, Bloodstained. He plays Colonnade, and passes. Draw, pass, discarding Griselbrand. Turn 2 he shocks on Sacred Foundry to represent counter mana, and passes back. I play the land, go to end step. He takes the opportunity to try and Helix me. Since he's tapped out I tank for a minute and then YOLO. With the Helix still on the stack at end step, I go off. Crack Mire for Swamp, SSG into Goryo's, draw 14, shoal for 11, draw 14, Exile 2 SSGs, Shoal for 8 splicing Desperate ritual, draw 7, Ritual, Shoal for 11 splicing Breach for Borby, draw 7 more cards. After drawing 42 cards and losing 42 life (and gaining 30), win by dealing 36 damage with 12 lands to the face. The Helix still on the stack would have been lethal at resolution several times during the combo had I been forced to stop.
Plays like that are what make this one of the decks I keep coming back to.