The four-drops that matter are basically Chandra and Ashcloud Phoenix. Chandra is really good at faltering blockers and dealing a point to your opponent. I'd say her +0 ability is most useful against control decks to get cards.
Ashcloud Phoenix is very good. However, I think it's better in Temur lists, where they can actually pay the morph cost, than in our deck.
Anyway, I want to submit for discussion the card Singing Bell Strike. I know it may have been discussed somewhere back in the primordial depths of this thread, but I think it warrants another look.
We can't really remove Siege Rhino unless it's with Banishing Light. And then, when they destroy that, they get to helix us again. I think Singing Bell Strike is a great answer otherwise.
Anyone care to offer opinions on it?
Sorry man but that's just...terrible. How is that better than banishing light? The cards that remove banishing light ALSO remove SBS but on top of that, they can just pay 6 to untap it when need be. I don't understand how you came to the conclusion that you'd want to play that card.If Rhino is a huge concern, playing Pillar of Light in the SB. But between DS, BL and Gryff, you have plenty of answers.
On the Phoenix: On paper, it seems to be a good card, but you have to remember that the following get rid of it permanently: Abzan Charm, Utter End, Magma Spray, Anger of the Gods and the Artifact U/B control plays. The problem is that the majority of the good decks you will be facing play those cards and thus, reduce his power dramatically. It's unfortunate that the only cards that are worth running for us in the 4 slot is either that or Chandra and Chandra is quite mediocre.
24 lands is correct for the more aggressive builds. I've upped to 25 because I play more 5 drops and have never looked back. I don't agree with DTT being a One of. It's one of those cards you absolutely always want at least one in your hand at all times. It's just busted. The God's willing are also good tech in the more aggressive builds (as we saw at the Stockholm GP).
Yes, you can't just shove quite contemplation into Jeskai aggro build and expect results. The card needs more controllish version of the deck. Think of it like this - every burn, bounce and draw spell has an additional mode to buy you precious turns. It lets' you deal with creatures burn usually cannot.
Anyway, it's a really radical idea and I don't know if anything comes out of it, but I'll probably work on it if metagame continues to push Jeskai Aggro out of Tier 1 status.
If you're going to go that route, wouldn't it just be better to play goblin slide? It essentially does exactly the same thing and in addition, can actually end a game.
Nice stats. This tells me that Rabblemaster or no, the deck is just consistent. He is not required to push the deck over the hill.
@redtwister
There isn't much aggro to be honest. It's just not very good at the moment. I've played mono red and mono black a few times and they just can't beat us. Between Lightning strikes, magma jets and anger of the gods, they can't keep a dude in play. And Rhino is just too big of a swing for them to overcome.
Like I mentioned earlier, I'm finding that the Prognostic sphinx is actually a total house for the format. It is simple unkillable, goes under Elspeth, has evasion, blocks every creature in the format and sets up your next few draws (which is super important for us).
I totally agree with the statement in bold. Actually I play 2 Sphinxes main and Dragons in the SB for Abzan and Mardu matchups. Sometimes we just run out of cards since we don't have actual card advantage plays (Dig is one extra card and that's it). Sphinx doesn't draw us cards, but it let us stack only gas on top of the library so no draw is dead.
I was thinking of going more controllish route maindeck. Reason for this is we are cold to strong Temur and Abzan Aggro starts. Judging from GP LA and GP Stockholm, Anger of the Gods should be great maindeck since it kills so many creatures in a lot of decks. The only deck it's not great against is Abzan Midrange which we have decent matchup against since it's not so fast as its' Aggro counterpart.
If metagame continues to evolve in the direction of efficient monsters like Temur and Abzan Aggro, which we have hard time against (what can you do against T2 or T3 Knuckleblade/Anafenza if you don't have stoke in hand? Die?), this means either Green devotion decks will thrive (and Jeskai with it cause we beat Devotion like it's nobody's business) or we will become Tier 1.5 deck since we can't handle cheap efficient creatures with toughness 4+. I've been thinking of Quiet Contemplation card and its' applications in our deck...
The problem with Temur is turn two Knucklehead + temur charm/stubborn denial. This is very hard to beat, I agree. I guess if this happens, this is where suspension field becomes very important as it lets us actually kill the knucklehead without getting trapped by a counter on turn three.
As I've mentioned before, mono colored aggro isn't a problem but temur monsters might become. I really like the Abzan aggro build and I think the hardest creature to deal with is the dealer as it regenerates/pump. So banishing light is solid here.
This is the thing in this format, there simply aren't any catch all answers to every deck. So it will always be a meta call. Quiet contemplation is just too slow to do anything though. Also, it doesn't do a thing on its own.
Nice stats. This tells me that Rabblemaster or no, the deck is just consistent. He is not required to push the deck over the hill.
@redtwister
There isn't much aggro to be honest. It's just not very good at the moment. I've played mono red and mono black a few times and they just can't beat us. Between Lightning strikes, magma jets and anger of the gods, they can't keep a dude in play. And Rhino is just too big of a swing for them to overcome.
Like I mentioned earlier, I'm finding that the Prognostic sphinx is actually a total house for the format. It is simple unkillable, goes under Elspeth, has evasion, blocks every creature in the format and sets up your next few draws (which is super important for us).
Interesting bit of information, five Jeskai Tempo lists made it to the Top 16 of SCG Open Minneapolis, and every single one of them ran four Rabblemasters. I still feel as though Brimaz is the superior choice, but maybe this will call for some additional discussion.
Also worth noting, two of those five chose not to run any Seekers, and three of them ran a single Stormbreath Dragon.
I ran the stormbreath main too for a while. Sometimes he's a house. But I felt that having Keranos main is a far harder threat to answer and always gives you gas turn after turn. That's my reasoning for switching.
What I would like to know is how often they sided out the rabblemasters G2.
@the n00b king
Very interesting. Those are tough matches to win against, GJ.
Deck list (and rough sideboard thoughts)? I'll take a guess, as I am very intrigued by going no Seeker. I assume you are going with something like this:
I would rather have Glare of Heresy over Erase because it is far more versatile. I like the use of Spirit of the Labyrinth for the combo deck, since it really puts pressure on them since being able to draw is huge for them. I like it better than Eidolon of Rhetoric because they also can't profitably block it with Sylvan Caryatid, it doesn't impact us, and stopping their draw if far more important to get to the late game with them than to keep them at one play per turn.
You more or less hit exactly what my build is like. I only play 3 hushwings though. I switched Keranos in the main because he's just busted. No one will have answers for him G1 and can straight up win you any long games. My sideboard is as such:
I've used the Spirit exactly for what you've described. They cannot block it with Caryatid and it puts pressure (hell, i even sided it in against u/b control and dropping this turn two was a nightmare for them). But i've been thinking about it more and more and I think that Phyrexian Revoker is more potent (and also has applications in other matchups). Calling their Caryatid/Rattleclaw mystic basically leaves them dead in the water. They have zero ways to interact with your creatures if they can't bounce it via a helix. It doesn't put the pressure on them like the Spirit does, but it can also mana screw them out of a color they need. Where you concede in attack power, you gain in shutting down their abilities to interact with you.
Like I said, U/B control is actually one or two cards away from being a serious threat. It still has a hard time dealing with aggro decks, but for everything else in between it's actually a very potent deck. I can't imagine how good it'll be when they can replace things like Pearl Lake Ancient, that 2/4 lifelink guy with good cards.
@CardGamesOnMotorcycles
Basically, the seeker doesn't really do anything of true value against many matchups. Sure sometimes you get to trade with a Rhino or whatever (if they don't just murder it in one of hundred ways) but ultimately, it's just a terrible terrible top deck. I think it just doesn't do enough to really justify its presence. This is about equal for the Rabblemasters. Sometimes you'll catch someone off guard and kill them with it, but those occasions are become rarer and rarer as everyone immediately have ways to kill the thing. It also is a pretty dead draw mid game since it has no evasion. We already have enough three drops without wanting to over clog that slot (I'm talking about you brimaz/rabblemaster/charm/mantis/gryff build).
So I won a GPT for an upcoming GP beating principally U/B control and Ascendancy.
Now I must say, U/B control is potentially a difficult matchup, depending on the pilot. In essence, your whole game plan is to stick as many threats as possible in a row forcing them to use their counters. Ultimately, the single most important threat that you need to stick is Keranos. If they let that resolve, it's almost impossible to lose.
Ascendancy however is an exceptionally potent match. I'm talking about the build that either kills you with a giant creature or mills you. Not the weird one with Nissa. They have a ton of counters post board to protect their combo and it is a very difficult match up.
I had Spirit of the labyrinth in my side and it definitely allowed me to win G3 (won game 1 off a very aggressive start and he stumbled on mana) as it bought me enough time to set my plays up. Luckily, he was forced to Swan Song a banishing light and that little flyer allowed me to get him to 8. Then that was game with my stoke/charm in hand.
But I will say that I have gotten lucky. I don't even think that erase is a better answer either because they can easily counter that too. He countered: Anger of the Gods, End Hostilities, banishing light, and one of my negates. He was even forced to counter one of his own spell to generate a 2/2 flyer (but it was too late by then). So they can certainly match all the answers we throw at them. If they don't stumble on mana, it is practically impossible to beat.
I wish to add that my list neither plays the seekers nor the rabblemasters. I have been advocating to cut them for a while now and I definitely do not miss them. However, the Prognostic sphinx is a house in this format. Abzan has no answer (short of some how emptying your hand and theirs), U/B control will have a very hard time killing it if it resolves and it blocks everything in the format that is relevant.
I was playing 2 disdainful strokes main deck but will move them back in the board. I feel like they can be replaced by 2 negates main instead as they are far more relevant cards that hits in the format G1.
I think we concluded that the GR can be cut from the list as they just don't do anything we don't already do. They are weak to every piece of removal in the format and generally don't do all that much. They are pretty much a dead draw after turn 5 as well.
I have been advocating for 25 lands for weeks now. 24 is simply not enough. Too often you'd stall on 3 lands and just couldn't push through to the win.
I'm unsure for the Gryff after all. I've been playing it but it doesn't seem that good. I'm starting to lean on the Brimaz side of the board as well. But I am unsure. I wish there was another three drop spell that could really affect the board that didn't cost double white.
I really really like Narset and she generally leads to crazy blowouts. Also, as it turns out, Sorin is a bit of a pain in the ass if he's not dealt with immediately.
Man, UR Delver is so good now. The swiftspears+TC is just so good. TC might have been a mistake more than Ascendancy. Considering how much it bleeds over all formats.
I lost to that Heroic deck again. What a beating that deck is. Honestly guys, I would prefer playing against Abzan all day (which I beat today) over that deck. It is so freaking strong against us. Basically, their creatures are unkillable. Between God's Willing and other pumps, it is a horrible horrible match up. I don't know if that deck will become a thing but man, it's just ridiculous. You die unbelievably fast against them. Unreal. Maybe something to keep in mind. I have no clue how to build for that deck. I guess the Seeker is actually really good here. Man...we need a better way to gain life....
I can imagine it can be tough. Even if you side in End Hostilities and Suppression Field/Glare of Heresy, they still have Negate and Stubborn Denial. Maybe some bounce from the SB? Although I don't know if bounce is good against any other deck.
The only bounce of relevance is Void Snare. And I actually have thought of playing it main when the deck was much more closely aimed at tempoing out your opponent. It's just that they are able to protect that one drop like you wouldn't imagine. And it gets so damn big so damn fast. Like I said, if it becomes a thing, we need to start SB against it because it's just a brutal match up with what we have right now. It's really hard to get to five mana with that deck for EH. And even then, they can just negate it.
What is the consensus on Brimaz in the main so far?
Depends on how many 3 drops you are running. I think the concensus was that ya, he's alright, but if you're running charms, rabbles, mantis as well, it's a lot of three drops....
I lost to that Heroic deck again. What a beating that deck is. Honestly guys, I would prefer playing against Abzan all day (which I beat today) over that deck. It is so freaking strong against us. Basically, their creatures are unkillable. Between God's Willing and other pumps, it is a horrible horrible match up. I don't know if that deck will become a thing but man, it's just ridiculous. You die unbelievably fast against them. Unreal. Maybe something to keep in mind. I have no clue how to build for that deck. I guess the Seeker is actually really good here. Man...we need a better way to gain life....
In the finals of PTK-Khans, Shaun's only win in the series came off the back of Rabblemaster. Rabblemaster fills a similar role as packrat in MBA. Your opponent must have an answer to it or they loose.
I didn't watch the finals, but went through the Finals report. The one game Shaun won was on the back of Mantis and burn. The ground was clogged by Courser so Rabblemaster was sending his kamikazas into death each turn. One turn though he used one of the tokens for convoking Stoke the flames, but I don't see that as winning on the back of Rabblemaster.
And that's exactly the problem with Rabblemaster: two other top decks (Abzan and G Devotion) don't care about it since they can clog the ground; the decks who don't have blockers have enough removal so they also don't sweat the Rabbie (UB, Mardu control).
lsv made some videos today for channelfireball and played our deck. Unsurprisingly he completely omitted Rabblemaster.
There was a point where he attacked with rabble-master and used the charm to trade with a courser. It was pretty much a blow out after that. (Maybe that wasn't the final match, but I swear that happened at some-point).
Yes, that did happen. But it's such a rare/fringe play that I don't see it as something that will occur often. I mean Jeskai tokens can do that too and no one's fawning over it.
I'm not sure I can agree... at all. Nearly all of the cards you listed are amazing in this deck.
I can see using gryfin instead of Rabblemaster, but rabblemaster can just win games unlike the Hushwing.
Can you back up your statement? And not against some Tier2 deck...what exactly does Rabblemaster do against two of the top decks, Abzan and G/x devotion?
@the n00b king
So what are our threats? Mantis, Planeswalkers and burn? That's hardly enough against any serious deck. And Hushwing doesn't "incidentally" stop ETB triggers; we are playing him mostly for this reason. Flying is incidental...
Has anyone thought of maybe Eidolon of the Great revel ? I mean we sorta are a burn deck...didn't know if anyone was testing this guy.
And I really dont see RR being a problem in this deck.
Also how are you guys SBing for the mirror? I also see Eidolon doing work in the mirror match, which is gonna be thing for a while I predict.
I was thinking of bringing Eidolon against controllish decks. So mainly UB, and he's great also against Ascendancy combo. He's terrible when you're behind though, so I don't like him against decks that are as aggresive us we are or even more aggresive. Kinda like Standstill in the old days.
The problem with the RM is the same as with Disdainful Stroke. It is rarely a card I want to draw past turn 4-5. This is why he is sometimes very good ON THE PLAY but extremely rarely on the draw. In addition, our "worst" matchups (G/x) usually have enough ground beef to render him pretty obsolete. I found myself cutting him pretty much every time I went to the sideboard, regardless of whether I was on the play or on the draw. This is where I prefer the Griffin. The ability to fly is pretty big. To be able to stop a raid Roc or Rhino is pretty good too. I get the love for RM, and sometimes you get to freeroll, but I've found that more often than not, it's just an ok creature that sends 1/1s into your opponent's guys. I wouldn't fault anyone for using him over something else.
I've played: BUG reanimator (which is actually a pretty solid deck), R/G monsters (Xenagos is bad against us though), Heroic (which is actually also a pretty tough matchup), Jeskai control (bad deck is bad), Mono Black, R/W burn and Mono Green. Funny enough, I've never found Hornet Queen to be that big of a problem. By the time she comes into play, my opponent is usually around 10 life and I can just finish them off with burn. I never liked siding into counterspells because I very rarely wanted to be on the reactive side of things. Granted, I haven't played U/B control but I don't think that deck is particularly good right now (Ivan, who I consider a master of control, stated as much himself).
I've played the mirror a few times and I've noticed often that 23-24 lands just simply isn't enough. Going up to 25 has made a massive difference in my matchups because I very very rarely get mana screwed (can't really remember last time I was). Whereas the traditional build seems to stall on 3 lands a lot.
On a side note, Ascendancy is starting to be a thing in my meta and I want to try the Spirit of the Labyrinth against that deck. My reasoning is that I don't like Erase as it is too narrow, whereas the Spirit provides a solid body that cannot be blocked by Caryathid and puts real pressure on my opponent. They also don't really have a way to interact with the creature, most of the time.
Sorry man but that's just...terrible. How is that better than banishing light? The cards that remove banishing light ALSO remove SBS but on top of that, they can just pay 6 to untap it when need be. I don't understand how you came to the conclusion that you'd want to play that card.If Rhino is a huge concern, playing Pillar of Light in the SB. But between DS, BL and Gryff, you have plenty of answers.
24 lands is correct for the more aggressive builds. I've upped to 25 because I play more 5 drops and have never looked back. I don't agree with DTT being a One of. It's one of those cards you absolutely always want at least one in your hand at all times. It's just busted. The God's willing are also good tech in the more aggressive builds (as we saw at the Stockholm GP).
Definitely don't think 23 lands is going to be enough.
If you're going to go that route, wouldn't it just be better to play goblin slide? It essentially does exactly the same thing and in addition, can actually end a game.
The problem with Temur is turn two Knucklehead + temur charm/stubborn denial. This is very hard to beat, I agree. I guess if this happens, this is where suspension field becomes very important as it lets us actually kill the knucklehead without getting trapped by a counter on turn three.
As I've mentioned before, mono colored aggro isn't a problem but temur monsters might become. I really like the Abzan aggro build and I think the hardest creature to deal with is the dealer as it regenerates/pump. So banishing light is solid here.
This is the thing in this format, there simply aren't any catch all answers to every deck. So it will always be a meta call. Quiet contemplation is just too slow to do anything though. Also, it doesn't do a thing on its own.
Nice stats. This tells me that Rabblemaster or no, the deck is just consistent. He is not required to push the deck over the hill.
@redtwister
There isn't much aggro to be honest. It's just not very good at the moment. I've played mono red and mono black a few times and they just can't beat us. Between Lightning strikes, magma jets and anger of the gods, they can't keep a dude in play. And Rhino is just too big of a swing for them to overcome.
Like I mentioned earlier, I'm finding that the Prognostic sphinx is actually a total house for the format. It is simple unkillable, goes under Elspeth, has evasion, blocks every creature in the format and sets up your next few draws (which is super important for us).
I ran the stormbreath main too for a while. Sometimes he's a house. But I felt that having Keranos main is a far harder threat to answer and always gives you gas turn after turn. That's my reasoning for switching.
What I would like to know is how often they sided out the rabblemasters G2.
You more or less hit exactly what my build is like. I only play 3 hushwings though. I switched Keranos in the main because he's just busted. No one will have answers for him G1 and can straight up win you any long games. My sideboard is as such:
2 Disdainful Stroke
2 Stormbreath dragon
2 End Hostilities
3 Spirit of the labyrinth/Phyrexian Revoker
1 Narset, Enlightened master
2 Glare of Heresy
2 Anger of the Gods
1 Erase/Flex Slot
I've used the Spirit exactly for what you've described. They cannot block it with Caryatid and it puts pressure (hell, i even sided it in against u/b control and dropping this turn two was a nightmare for them). But i've been thinking about it more and more and I think that Phyrexian Revoker is more potent (and also has applications in other matchups). Calling their Caryatid/Rattleclaw mystic basically leaves them dead in the water. They have zero ways to interact with your creatures if they can't bounce it via a helix. It doesn't put the pressure on them like the Spirit does, but it can also mana screw them out of a color they need. Where you concede in attack power, you gain in shutting down their abilities to interact with you.
Like I said, U/B control is actually one or two cards away from being a serious threat. It still has a hard time dealing with aggro decks, but for everything else in between it's actually a very potent deck. I can't imagine how good it'll be when they can replace things like Pearl Lake Ancient, that 2/4 lifelink guy with good cards.
@CardGamesOnMotorcycles
Basically, the seeker doesn't really do anything of true value against many matchups. Sure sometimes you get to trade with a Rhino or whatever (if they don't just murder it in one of hundred ways) but ultimately, it's just a terrible terrible top deck. I think it just doesn't do enough to really justify its presence. This is about equal for the Rabblemasters. Sometimes you'll catch someone off guard and kill them with it, but those occasions are become rarer and rarer as everyone immediately have ways to kill the thing. It also is a pretty dead draw mid game since it has no evasion. We already have enough three drops without wanting to over clog that slot (I'm talking about you brimaz/rabblemaster/charm/mantis/gryff build).
Now I must say, U/B control is potentially a difficult matchup, depending on the pilot. In essence, your whole game plan is to stick as many threats as possible in a row forcing them to use their counters. Ultimately, the single most important threat that you need to stick is Keranos. If they let that resolve, it's almost impossible to lose.
Ascendancy however is an exceptionally potent match. I'm talking about the build that either kills you with a giant creature or mills you. Not the weird one with Nissa. They have a ton of counters post board to protect their combo and it is a very difficult match up.
I had Spirit of the labyrinth in my side and it definitely allowed me to win G3 (won game 1 off a very aggressive start and he stumbled on mana) as it bought me enough time to set my plays up. Luckily, he was forced to Swan Song a banishing light and that little flyer allowed me to get him to 8. Then that was game with my stoke/charm in hand.
But I will say that I have gotten lucky. I don't even think that erase is a better answer either because they can easily counter that too. He countered: Anger of the Gods, End Hostilities, banishing light, and one of my negates. He was even forced to counter one of his own spell to generate a 2/2 flyer (but it was too late by then). So they can certainly match all the answers we throw at them. If they don't stumble on mana, it is practically impossible to beat.
I wish to add that my list neither plays the seekers nor the rabblemasters. I have been advocating to cut them for a while now and I definitely do not miss them. However, the Prognostic sphinx is a house in this format. Abzan has no answer (short of some how emptying your hand and theirs), U/B control will have a very hard time killing it if it resolves and it blocks everything in the format that is relevant.
I was playing 2 disdainful strokes main deck but will move them back in the board. I feel like they can be replaced by 2 negates main instead as they are far more relevant cards that hits in the format G1.
I have been advocating for 25 lands for weeks now. 24 is simply not enough. Too often you'd stall on 3 lands and just couldn't push through to the win.
I'm unsure for the Gryff after all. I've been playing it but it doesn't seem that good. I'm starting to lean on the Brimaz side of the board as well. But I am unsure. I wish there was another three drop spell that could really affect the board that didn't cost double white.
I really really like Narset and she generally leads to crazy blowouts. Also, as it turns out, Sorin is a bit of a pain in the ass if he's not dealt with immediately.
The only bounce of relevance is Void Snare. And I actually have thought of playing it main when the deck was much more closely aimed at tempoing out your opponent. It's just that they are able to protect that one drop like you wouldn't imagine. And it gets so damn big so damn fast. Like I said, if it becomes a thing, we need to start SB against it because it's just a brutal match up with what we have right now. It's really hard to get to five mana with that deck for EH. And even then, they can just negate it.
Depends on how many 3 drops you are running. I think the concensus was that ya, he's alright, but if you're running charms, rabbles, mantis as well, it's a lot of three drops....
I lost to that Heroic deck again. What a beating that deck is. Honestly guys, I would prefer playing against Abzan all day (which I beat today) over that deck. It is so freaking strong against us. Basically, their creatures are unkillable. Between God's Willing and other pumps, it is a horrible horrible match up. I don't know if that deck will become a thing but man, it's just ridiculous. You die unbelievably fast against them. Unreal. Maybe something to keep in mind. I have no clue how to build for that deck. I guess the Seeker is actually really good here. Man...we need a better way to gain life....
Yes, that did happen. But it's such a rare/fringe play that I don't see it as something that will occur often. I mean Jeskai tokens can do that too and no one's fawning over it.
Case in point: We can do better than the RM.
The problem with the RM is the same as with Disdainful Stroke. It is rarely a card I want to draw past turn 4-5. This is why he is sometimes very good ON THE PLAY but extremely rarely on the draw. In addition, our "worst" matchups (G/x) usually have enough ground beef to render him pretty obsolete. I found myself cutting him pretty much every time I went to the sideboard, regardless of whether I was on the play or on the draw. This is where I prefer the Griffin. The ability to fly is pretty big. To be able to stop a raid Roc or Rhino is pretty good too. I get the love for RM, and sometimes you get to freeroll, but I've found that more often than not, it's just an ok creature that sends 1/1s into your opponent's guys. I wouldn't fault anyone for using him over something else.
I've played: BUG reanimator (which is actually a pretty solid deck), R/G monsters (Xenagos is bad against us though), Heroic (which is actually also a pretty tough matchup), Jeskai control (bad deck is bad), Mono Black, R/W burn and Mono Green. Funny enough, I've never found Hornet Queen to be that big of a problem. By the time she comes into play, my opponent is usually around 10 life and I can just finish them off with burn. I never liked siding into counterspells because I very rarely wanted to be on the reactive side of things. Granted, I haven't played U/B control but I don't think that deck is particularly good right now (Ivan, who I consider a master of control, stated as much himself).
I've played the mirror a few times and I've noticed often that 23-24 lands just simply isn't enough. Going up to 25 has made a massive difference in my matchups because I very very rarely get mana screwed (can't really remember last time I was). Whereas the traditional build seems to stall on 3 lands a lot.
On a side note, Ascendancy is starting to be a thing in my meta and I want to try the Spirit of the Labyrinth against that deck. My reasoning is that I don't like Erase as it is too narrow, whereas the Spirit provides a solid body that cannot be blocked by Caryathid and puts real pressure on my opponent. They also don't really have a way to interact with the creature, most of the time.
Here is my current list, for those interested:
4 Mantis Rider
3 Stormbreath Dragon
3 Hushwing Griffin
//Planeswalker
2 Sarkhan, The Dragonspeaker
//Enchantment
2 Banishing Light
2 Anger of the Gods
//Instant
4 Jeskai Charm
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
4 Stoke the flames
3 Dig through time
2 End Hostilities
2 Mindswipe
1 Narset, Enlightened Master
2 Suspension Field
2 Glare of Heresy
1 Keranos, God of Storms
2 Negate
3 Spirit of the Labyrinth