Why the removal of Porcelain Legionnaire from your deck lists? A 3/1 First Striker for 2 AND artifact is just amazing when coupled with Tempered Steel, which the deck is based around. Sure Hero of Bladehold is nice for the battlecry, but why Blade Splicer? Sure you're getting a 3/3 Golem with first strike that is affected by Tempered Steel, but Blade Splicer is not, and is way too fragile at only a 1/1. If you take out the Splicers and added Legionnaire's then I'd say that's a pretty nice list.
Also, has anyone ever thought of Shimmer Myr? I'm sure people have brought it up in the past pages (maybe), but a friend of mine was running them earlier in his variant of Hawkward and getting the ability to Flash in creatures at the end of their turn just seems rather nice, plus still only a 3 drop and impacted by Tempered Steel.
I have been wondering about the matchup with valakut and found we have a very good chance against Valakut because we have fliers. I want to make the following changes on July 1st:
-3 Porcelain Legionnaire
-3 Contested War Zone
+3 Tectonic Edge
+3 Spined Thopter
Spined Thopter is a much better choice once Caw-Blade goes away because we no longer have to get around Squadron Hawk and unlike Legion, it won't get blocked by Overgrown Battlement.
Could you post the list you've been running lately? Would like to see what you're replacing in your sideboard for the Spined Thopter and whether or not you're still running Inkmoth or not as well.
When people played G/W quest the main reason they were able to get out Argentum Armor on a card like Vengevine so quick was because of cards such as Memnite and Ornithopter, combined with Glint Hawk bouncing and even Kor Skyfisher to bounce again. The current list for Hawkward includes a lot of the same exact cards that utilize quest. If you can get Argentum Armor on a Vault Skirge then you pretty much have a card that completely gets around removal aside from Into the Roil or their own Dispatch.
I decided not to put in Signal Pest despite it being a "swarm" type of deck simply because it is very fragile as well, until you get Tempered Steel out. It is possible that I may put them back in in replace of Phyrexian Revoker and then slim down a Misstep and a Spellskite in the sideboard to put two more Revokers in there.
Why no Porcelain Legionnaire? The card is just amazing, even though it is fragile at a 3/1. The first strike is great and provides an immediate threat that they see and want to deal with, instead of say the Steel Overseer.
The spellbombs seem so much worse than Gitaxian Probe, simply because you have to pay 1 to pop the bomb for a 1/1, and then another 1 S to actually get the effective card draw. While the 1/1 is nice and all, your sole purpose of the Spellbomb is to get the illustrious white card-draw. I'd rather pay 2 Life to get a peak into his hand to see if I'm playing into a DoJ (or other removal) and get a free card to boot.
Why no lists running Quest for the Holy Relic though? With so many 0 drops and the ability to bounce using Glint Hawk, why not play a turn 1 Quest, drop two-three 0 drop cards (cause when doesn't the deck have a few 0 drops?) and then playing a Hawk, bouncing a Memnite, and then playing it again to trigger and then pop to get an Argentum Armor out and swinging in on Turn 3 or possibly even 2 for 6 or 7 AND destroying a color that they may be depending on.
Also, has anyone ever thought of Shimmer Myr? I'm sure people have brought it up in the past pages (maybe), but a friend of mine was running them earlier in his variant of Hawkward and getting the ability to Flash in creatures at the end of their turn just seems rather nice, plus still only a 3 drop and impacted by Tempered Steel.
Could you post the list you've been running lately? Would like to see what you're replacing in your sideboard for the Spined Thopter and whether or not you're still running Inkmoth or not as well.
3 Glint Hawk
4 Memnite
3 Ornithopter
4 Porcelain Legionnaire
2 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Steel Overseer
4 Vault Skirge
Spells:
3 Quest for the Holy Relic
4 Tempered Steel
4 Dispatch
3 Gitaxian Probe
1 Argentum Armor
1 Sword of War and Peace
3 Mox Opal
Land:
12 Plains
3 Inkmoth Nexus
3 Tectonic Edge
4 Mental Misstep
3 Refraction Trap
4 Spellskite
1 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Mirran Crusader
I decided not to put in Signal Pest despite it being a "swarm" type of deck simply because it is very fragile as well, until you get Tempered Steel out. It is possible that I may put them back in in replace of Phyrexian Revoker and then slim down a Misstep and a Spellskite in the sideboard to put two more Revokers in there.
The spellbombs seem so much worse than Gitaxian Probe, simply because you have to pay 1 to pop the bomb for a 1/1, and then another 1 S to actually get the effective card draw. While the 1/1 is nice and all, your sole purpose of the Spellbomb is to get the illustrious white card-draw. I'd rather pay 2 Life to get a peak into his hand to see if I'm playing into a DoJ (or other removal) and get a free card to boot.
Why no lists running Quest for the Holy Relic though? With so many 0 drops and the ability to bounce using Glint Hawk, why not play a turn 1 Quest, drop two-three 0 drop cards (cause when doesn't the deck have a few 0 drops?) and then playing a Hawk, bouncing a Memnite, and then playing it again to trigger and then pop to get an Argentum Armor out and swinging in on Turn 3 or possibly even 2 for 6 or 7 AND destroying a color that they may be depending on.