Turn//Burn or Krasis Arrest are my initial thoughts; Rakdos Drake is a distant third. If this format turns out to be "slow", I imagine snapping up Rakdos and Wind Drakes pack 1 and more flyers packs 2-3 to be a pretty sweet Esper Skies deck.
Considering that I'd probably be happy to play either side of Turn//Burn in Ux or Rx, I'm taking the sweet split card. As good as Krasis Incubation is, it requires 2 colors, and I'm going to really delay on taking a gold card pick 1 or 2 unless it's above and beyond the best card in the pack. Incubation is not far and away the best card here.
A five mana 6/6 is pretty hard to pass up ever. Bouncing your own dudes seems very good with the large amount of enchantment-as-removal spells in the block.
I liked playing Roaring Primadox, and this is a better primadox.
Gorger is high risk/high reward. Rakdos Drake is safe pick. I'd rather go for the risk here.
Edit: I wonder if i'll ever have the mana base to live the dream with Gorger and that boros viashino that gets +2/+2 whenever it ETB.
How so? Divination has always been barely playable, yes, but if this effect is wanted, then we will just refer to Divination itself. Randomly mill my opponent's cards? In a meta with Lingering Souls, Unburial Rites, and Snapcaster Mage? No, thanks.
I imagine you'd target yourself with that effect more likely then not, for the exact reasons you mentioned.
But the card is basically a sorcery speed Thought Scour that costs 1B more to draw an extra card, or a Divination that can net some value in milling you for the extra mana. This does not appear good. Maybe in a deck dedicated to Obzedat's Aid/Unburial Rites in Esper colors. It remains to be seen if that's even a thing.
Hidden Strings could be a thing in a deck with Verdant Havens and Gilded Lotus as a way to accelerate mana. Generating a pile of mana and casting X spells/dudes every turn could be a fun FNM deck.
For those saying the new Armadillo cloak will be played in bogles: This is incorrect. That spell costs entirely too much for the Bogles deck. It *probably* will not be played in that deck.
Every guild is losing 1 to 1.5 packs of their mechanic. I mean its true that Selesnya's mechanic is one of the most influential on the guild being good in limited but other guilds are the same way.
I think most draft strategies will push towards 3 color draft pools since 2 color will be much more difficult, unless you are truly the only person in those colors at a table.
The thing is that, Populate requires both the token and the populate spell to work. Every other mechanic, minus Cipher, can work with only the card with the mechanic printed on it.
Considering that GW populate is losing 1 to 1.5 packs of good populate cards, this seems like the kind of thing that deck would want/need to work. I wouldn't want to take it early, but seeing it late would be a good signal to go into GW and go tokens.
I've been thinking about Ambush Wurm in the Prime Speaker Bant deck like what Rietzl and Sperling played this past weekend. That particular deck has Centaur Healers in the sideboard. I imagine if it maindecked this card, it may change the Healers to Trostani's for the off chance of value.
So, while I don't think Trostani will be maindeckable, she may find her way into more sideboards if this card is played maindeck, which I imagine will happen.
Arbor Elf is great for the nut draws where you drop a 5-drop on turn 3. Playing Acidic Slime turn 3 against midrage/control decks is amazing and has the chance to outright win the game right there for you. Elf working with Underworld Connections is also a great flow of cards which is nearly unbeatable against many decks.
DRS just isn't great in Standard. Ground Seal performs the same function as DRS against the reanimator decks, but as an upside (and a huge upside) it draws you a card.
Regarding sideboarding for Infect: I like using Dismember in my sideboard for that matchup as well as for Twin/Kiki decks. They are about as all-in as we are, except you can target your opponent's creature.
Also, sometimes you have to chump block with your Daybreak Coronet'd Bogle. I've done this when facing a Might of Old Krosa'd Ichorclaw Myr. I don't know if he had 5 points of pump in his hand, but I wasn't willing to gamble with it. I played another creature and enchanted it in that game, and he was unable to draw more pump spells, so I won easily after that.
Dimir. Grixis seems like a decent color combo to be in. Golgari would really be the only weak pull from that, and I suspect that the "secret ally guild" won't actually be random.
(The images of the guild boxes appear to alternate, with guilds from one set appearing to be on the back/front respectively. I imagine ally guilds will be chosen that have some semblence of syngergy with each other.)
I'm not sure this should even be in competative. this is a deck in the budget forum
RIGHT. Now.
It not even her's... sucks the way fame skews things
Too be fair, a deck being built on a budget can still be competitive.
Does someone have testing evidence that this deck is in fact not competitive?
Also, while the writer may have not designed the deck, there is no reason to blast them for having their name associated with it. No one gets all uppity when someone says "Reid Duke's Jund"- he certainly didn't create that deck, but he's been getting credit for the current popular list.
What manland are you interested in playing? Treetops? I suppose a manland or two would probably increase our control MU. They'll also help us do the random aggro plan which I love.
With the high Island count, you might want to run Faerie Conclave. The clock is represents is terrible, but Bolt and Electrolyze can speed up that clock.
Watching my friend play UR Twin against Eggs. During her opponents turn, she cracks a Scalding Tarn for a tapped shockland. At this point she's tapped out. Her opponent proceeds to attempt to combo off. First Sunrise resolves, and he points out that the Tarn comes back into play. This was critical...because when he went for the second, uh, Sunrise she cracked that sucker for an Island and Dispel'ed his spell.
He was not expecting that all. I believe she went on to win that game.
Considering that I'd probably be happy to play either side of Turn//Burn in Ux or Rx, I'm taking the sweet split card. As good as Krasis Incubation is, it requires 2 colors, and I'm going to really delay on taking a gold card pick 1 or 2 unless it's above and beyond the best card in the pack. Incubation is not far and away the best card here.
I liked playing Roaring Primadox, and this is a better primadox.
Gorger is high risk/high reward. Rakdos Drake is safe pick. I'd rather go for the risk here.
Edit: I wonder if i'll ever have the mana base to live the dream with Gorger and that boros viashino that gets +2/+2 whenever it ETB.
There's an Android app, MTG Familiar, that has the Momir Vig avatar function as well as the Jhoira avatar and Stonehewer Giant.
I'm sure theres a website somewhere that has a script to do it, but I wouldn't know where to find such a site.
Sorcery speed really hurts it though. Decks that want this also don't want to be tapping out.
I imagine you'd target yourself with that effect more likely then not, for the exact reasons you mentioned.
But the card is basically a sorcery speed Thought Scour that costs 1B more to draw an extra card, or a Divination that can net some value in milling you for the extra mana. This does not appear good. Maybe in a deck dedicated to Obzedat's Aid/Unburial Rites in Esper colors. It remains to be seen if that's even a thing.
Hidden Strings could be a thing in a deck with Verdant Havens and Gilded Lotus as a way to accelerate mana. Generating a pile of mana and casting X spells/dudes every turn could be a fun FNM deck.
The thing is that, Populate requires both the token and the populate spell to work. Every other mechanic, minus Cipher, can work with only the card with the mechanic printed on it.
I've been thinking about Ambush Wurm in the Prime Speaker Bant deck like what Rietzl and Sperling played this past weekend. That particular deck has Centaur Healers in the sideboard. I imagine if it maindecked this card, it may change the Healers to Trostani's for the off chance of value.
So, while I don't think Trostani will be maindeckable, she may find her way into more sideboards if this card is played maindeck, which I imagine will happen.
DRS just isn't great in Standard. Ground Seal performs the same function as DRS against the reanimator decks, but as an upside (and a huge upside) it draws you a card.
Also, sometimes you have to chump block with your Daybreak Coronet'd Bogle. I've done this when facing a Might of Old Krosa'd Ichorclaw Myr. I don't know if he had 5 points of pump in his hand, but I wasn't willing to gamble with it. I played another creature and enchanted it in that game, and he was unable to draw more pump spells, so I won easily after that.
(The images of the guild boxes appear to alternate, with guilds from one set appearing to be on the back/front respectively. I imagine ally guilds will be chosen that have some semblence of syngergy with each other.)
Too be fair, a deck being built on a budget can still be competitive.
Does someone have testing evidence that this deck is in fact not competitive?
Also, while the writer may have not designed the deck, there is no reason to blast them for having their name associated with it. No one gets all uppity when someone says "Reid Duke's Jund"- he certainly didn't create that deck, but he's been getting credit for the current popular list.
With the high Island count, you might want to run Faerie Conclave. The clock is represents is terrible, but Bolt and Electrolyze can speed up that clock.
He was not expecting that all. I believe she went on to win that game.