Phenax is powerful. I don't know about standard, but he'll swing a lot of limited games. A totally jank board of wavecrash triton and guardians of meletis is suddenly terrifying.
In limited this seems like a distinct second fiddle to nessian asp. It doesn't even compare all that favorably with vulpine goliath. Playing it on curve is pretty strong though, even if its just a textless invader parasite.
In limited, Champion of Souls + Gray Merchant is pretty much a wrap. Which is fine - you should probably win if you activate your 6-drop mythic's 5 mana ability once or twice.
The list from post #19 finally got some playtime and did really well. The hardest matchup has been UW control and the easiest monoblack devotion. With a little fine tuning this is a tier 1.5 deck at least, and I plan to take it to a PTQ or two.
Some sideboard experiments and how they worked:
Guttersnipe: This guy was a magnet for removal and deserved to be. We can't afford to run more than one or two three-drops, but a singleton snipe might make the starting 60.
Arena Athlete: A possible sideboard card for other creature-based decks. I tried maindecking a copy and found myself siding it out most of the time.
Toil / Trouble: Possible tech against UW. Skullcrack their revelation, then follow up with trouble. Again, 3 mana is a lot.
Wild Guess: Tried it as a one-of and was never unhappy to see it. I suspect multiple copies would get clunky.
Madcap Skills: Adequate but not amazing. On the one hand, it triggers crusader; on the other it fails to trigger pyromancer.
Problems needing solutions: Boros reckoner: a pain because we like to do suicidal swarm attacks, and he effectively eats 2 creatures instead of one. I've mainly just been lightning striking him and eating the 2-for 1. Seismic stomp, barrage of expendables, and arena athlete seem like possibilities.
Ratchet Bomb: Supreme verdict is a bummer, but at least the opponent has to spend a turn doing it. It resolves and then we resume our game plan. Bomb comes out earlier and operates at instant speed for no mana. Smelt seems super unexciting, but it might be worth it.
Really, short of pacify/freeze/etc. effects, there's no real "punishment" that you can lay down on bestow. Well, the only way is maybe Ray of Dissolution a mini-voltron and then block it and hope there's no combat trick.
That's the whole idea of bestow, right? You're paying way too much for a creature enchantment in exchange for some guaranteed value.
Spectral Flight for 4U isn't that spooky even with somewhat wonky removal. I mean, put it on fabled hero and gg, obv. That's the hero.
Skinrender/flametongue kavu variants that scale with your devotion. Normally cards like that are just sweet 2-for-1s, but being able to reduce devotion with the EtB trigger on the stack would introduce some play.
I tried the version I posted on page 1 for a few hours. There's something there, but it's grossly soft to sweepers. Sweepers in this case including shrivel, golgari charm, and electrickery. Jace is also a huge beating since our winning turn often involves a swarm of 1/1 tokens.
I felt like I was in good shape when playing against monoblack unless they had shrivel. Thoughtseizing us is about as bad as thoughtsiezing someone can be. We also scoff at devour flesh and desecration demon.
The denizen/crusader/pyromancer synergy is what allows the deck to do unfair things. Nivmagus adds another layer of unfairness but it's horrible in multiples, so I'm gonna try taking that down to a single copy.
^Yeh, he's a consideration. The original deck is running 17 land with 15 2-drops, and my list only has 4 2-drops, so -2 mountain, +2 loyalist is probably a fine change.
This build tries to take more advantage of spell synergy, so madcap skills and dragon mantle are out for dynacharge and coordinated assault, and young pyro and nivmagus elemental are in.
Goldfishing, it kills t4/t5 almost without fail. It's capable of t3 kills (example: 3 mountains, 3 titan's strength, denizen, crusader, coordinated assault).
Hello all, I've lurked here for quite a while and due to some recent frustrations I've decided to try posting and figure out how to improve my draft skills.
I've been trying my best to become a better drafter, but I just can't seem to get to a skill level where I can break from swiss drafts on modo to the 8-4s.
With swiss I think I've probably got around a 60% 3-0 and probably 85% 2-0. But whenever I try to go to 8-4s I usually scrub out in the first round, and almost always lose in the second.
Are there any decent ways to up my skill level, so that I can compete in the 8-4's without throwing money out the window and ripping all my hair out in frustration? =P
If you're crushing the swiss queues on the regular then you should be showing a small profit. Use the excess tix to join 8-4s. When you burn out of the 8-4s, lick your wounds and accumulate tix in swiss again.
Cycle of inspired token-makers seems sweet.
Some sideboard experiments and how they worked:
Guttersnipe: This guy was a magnet for removal and deserved to be. We can't afford to run more than one or two three-drops, but a singleton snipe might make the starting 60.
Arena Athlete: A possible sideboard card for other creature-based decks. I tried maindecking a copy and found myself siding it out most of the time.
Electrickery: This was clutch out of the sideboard against decks with soldier of the pantheon.
Toil / Trouble: Possible tech against UW. Skullcrack their revelation, then follow up with trouble. Again, 3 mana is a lot.
Wild Guess: Tried it as a one-of and was never unhappy to see it. I suspect multiple copies would get clunky.
Madcap Skills: Adequate but not amazing. On the one hand, it triggers crusader; on the other it fails to trigger pyromancer.
Problems needing solutions:
Boros reckoner: a pain because we like to do suicidal swarm attacks, and he effectively eats 2 creatures instead of one. I've mainly just been lightning striking him and eating the 2-for 1. Seismic stomp, barrage of expendables, and arena athlete seem like possibilities.
Ratchet Bomb: Supreme verdict is a bummer, but at least the opponent has to spend a turn doing it. It resolves and then we resume our game plan. Bomb comes out earlier and operates at instant speed for no mana. Smelt seems super unexciting, but it might be worth it.
That's the whole idea of bestow, right? You're paying way too much for a creature enchantment in exchange for some guaranteed value.
Spectral Flight for 4U isn't that spooky even with somewhat wonky removal. I mean, put it on fabled hero and gg, obv. That's the hero.
A targeted kill spell for monstrous creatures.
A creature with pro monstrous.
More flamespeaker adept-style triggered abilities.
What? ****, some of the most fun I've had playing was with a bunch of stone rains and pillages.
Warning for censor evasion.
-Sene
I felt like I was in good shape when playing against monoblack unless they had shrivel. Thoughtseizing us is about as bad as thoughtsiezing someone can be. We also scoff at devour flesh and desecration demon.
Gonna try this when I get a chance:
4x Ash Zealot
1x Firedrinker Satyr
4x Foundry Street Denizen
2x Legion Loyalist
1x Nivmagus Elemental
4x Rakdos Cackler
4x Young Pyromancer
4x Dynacharge
4x Lightning Strike
4x Shock
4x Titan's Strength
The denizen/crusader/pyromancer synergy is what allows the deck to do unfair things. Nivmagus adds another layer of unfairness but it's horrible in multiples, so I'm gonna try taking that down to a single copy.
I also wanna give Massive Raid a try.
19 mountain
creatures
4 foundry street denizen
4 akroan crusader
4 nivmagus elemental
4 firedrinker satyr
4 rakdos cackler
4 young pyromancer
4 shock
4 dynacharge
4 coordinated assault
4 titan's strength
1 weapon surge
This build tries to take more advantage of spell synergy, so madcap skills and dragon mantle are out for dynacharge and coordinated assault, and young pyro and nivmagus elemental are in.
19 mountain
creatures
4 foundry street denizen
4 akroan crusader
4 nivmagus elemental
4 firedrinker satyr
4 rakdos cackler
4 young pyromancer
4 shock
4 dynacharge
4 coordinated assault
4 titan's strength
1 weapon surge
Goldfishing, it kills t4/t5 almost without fail. It's capable of t3 kills (example: 3 mountains, 3 titan's strength, denizen, crusader, coordinated assault).
If you're crushing the swiss queues on the regular then you should be showing a small profit. Use the excess tix to join 8-4s. When you burn out of the 8-4s, lick your wounds and accumulate tix in swiss again.