I'm assuming some sort of red attack/burn deck is going to be viable. With Ball Lightning, Lightning Bolt, Jackal Familiar, Hellspark Elemental, etc. the tools are pretty much there for it to work.
But basically, you're asking for a block deck plus m10, which sounds quite awful.
When merfolks was in the format the debate was between runing ancestral visions or ponder. ponder won out against a draw 3 card for u in aggro. Therefore you need to seriously reconsider your evaluation. Ponder helps you hit your curve. I personally can't think of a better option.
I'm almost 98% positive you're wrong on this one. I'm pretty sure the debate was actually between Architect's Will and Ponder when Ancestral Visions rotated out and Ponder won out for not being ****.
The fact of the matter is, with Path to Exile existing he really isn't that good as you never get the reanimate part ever. While Anathemancer does more damage quicker and cheaper.
Even before Anathemancer, people were not running Demigod. He's just too hard to cast at times.
Well, I decided to do a quick rundown of the colors since the spoiler is complete.
White:
While it's good to see more cloudgoats, the first card to really pop out at me was Elite Vanguard. The problem I have is not really that it's a rehashed Savannah Lions, more that it's uncommon. I find that rather impressive, this seems to me that White Weenie is getting pushed as a concept as a whole instead of just Kithkin and/or Tokens.
As I make my way through the rest of the white cards, the next one I find intriguing is Harm's Way. While Shining Shoal was really good, I don't think this fits that bill. For effects like this, I think only two damage for 1 mana is a little low and unsatisfying. If it were 3, I'd definitely be playing this in constructed. However, the current makes it a high limited pick and in my opinion not much more.
While Open the Vaults gave me pause (There's really nothing good to do with this guys.), the next real card that I see is Silence. While not exactly Orim's Chant, it still probably has potential in some combo deck for forcing through. Just remember it's out there guys, not every chant like effect needs to be a lock. People were using Abeyance to push Cadavarous Blooms on the table well before Isochron Scepter.
That's pretty much I see for white. White Knight doesn't impress me much in this meta, but it's nice to see good 2 drops again.
Blue:
Going through blue, the first thing I really notice is Djinn of Wishes. This guy really seems like good potential. I liked Three Wishes before, and this is close to it.
Moving through the list, I find it aggravating that I have to buy a new playset of Remove Souls (Essence Scatter) and I find it funny that blue gets a Pacifism in Ice Cage. Is this now blue? Also, I see that Merfolk Looter is back and not Thought Courier. This makes me very happy as Thought Courier I hated and I love Looter. Could be that I can now use my Exodus Looters again. Mind Control is a little annoying and... I can keep using my Negates? Why do I have to buy new Remove Souls but don't lose my Negates. What's with the random renaming of cards? Just to force me to buy playsets of commons again? That's awkward.
Surprised to see Ponder, Tome Scour seems long overdue, and for some reason I really like Wall of Frost.
Black:
Yay Black Knight! Take THAT Path!
Cemetery Reaper is pretty friggin' sick. Seriously, making 3/3s for pretty much nothing is nothing to sneeze at. Plus, he's good at annoying the Reanimator decks that may or may not start appearing for whatever reason. (This is mainly the reason the Sphynx/Open the Vaults combo ain't going to work guys. This guy costs three, your combo costs like 12 million.)
I really like Doom Blade. Dread Warlock confuses me a little.
Duress actually depresses me. I hated playing against Duress in back in the day, at least Thoughtseize gives you the illusion of them having to jump through hurdles.
Haunting Echoes is nuts. I have fond memories of this card, and now I have thoughtseize and duress to make it work harder.
It seems rather odd that Mind Rot and Sign in Blood are in this set. Isn't Sign in Blood just better?
Relentless Rats makes me giggle. Gonna have some fun in standard again when I'm bored.
Red:
Act of Treason pisses me off. It's Threaten dammit!
I'm a big fan of Goblin Chieftan. This is exactly what the goblin lord should be.
Jackal Familiar... really? This guy is really good. If it's anything like Mogg Flunkies, two of these can attack together if I'm not mistaken. Either way, I can still see myself opening up with him, and playing Hellspark Elemental on turn 2, and ball lightning/boggart ram gang turn 3. Huge fan of this guy as his drawback is really not bad at all for a red deck.
Lightning Bolt really has me nervous. While I can't wait to play it, it just seems so strong.
Seriously guys, Magma Phoenix is just a bad Shard Phoenix. Being able to effectively use it's wrath effect is going to be really hard. I'd love to be proven wrong though.
Green:
Acidic Slime I'm a huge fan of. I've always loved Creeping Mold and sticking it on a 2/2 deathtouch for one more just makes me giddy.
Elvish Archdruid actually made me drop my jaw when I first saw it. Seriously, this may be too good while Lor is still legal. Imagine this in the Heritage Druid/Nettle Sentinel decks.
Is it bad that I think Mold Adder is better than Great Stable Stag?
Windstorm is really good I believe. Well, at least until the fall when all the flying tokens go away.
Artifact:
Mirror of Fate seems like it can do some stupid things. Time will probably have to tell on this one as I keep seeing DOOMSDAY on this card.
Lands:
Just to sum it up the new lands are good and so is the gargoyle land. The new lands are just flat out upgrades to the coastal towers of the past, and those were played as well. These are fine lands people.
All and all, the set actually sort of irritates me. Why make all the reprints with different names? I know it's profitable, but I figure not pissing off your clientelle is also profitable.
It's probably better for the game, I know this. I just find it irritating that I have to rebuy commons and uncommons. Not that I'm strapped for cash, just that it's tedious.
My sideboard is janked out, but I've found that Angelic Benediction is sick in the mirror and mirror-like matches. And 4 Dispeller's Capsule are essential.
A.) Putting 4 crusher in the deck isn't "adding another strategy". You're deck is 66.6% lands. If the assault/ad nauseum plan doesn't work because you know... they played their game plan and won anyway, you at least have something to do other than wait for more of your combo to come along. Crusher does the following:
1.) Provides a beater that hits for a lot.
2.) Digs you to your combo pieces, while being a beater.
3.) Turns your Seismic Assault activation into lightning bolts instead of shocks when both are in play.
I'm not seeing how adding an on color search engine makes it less consistent...
B.) ... you're deck is 66.6% lands. I don't think adding some G/R, G/B, and U/G lands will make it any less consistent. You really only need like 5 basics, and having basics for when they PtE your plumeviels is not awful.
C.) How does it help you kill when you don't have 10 lands? Is that Plumeveil you flip up going to be a defining card? The second assault? Or, more than likely, the other land you flip up because your deck is 66.6% lands.
D.) In my previous suggestions, you said I would reduce your consistency. Here's what your current plan is trying to do...
Cast a RRR enchantment.
Cast a 3BB instant.
Use a UUU creature for blocking.
Counter spells with a 1U instant, and setup with a U sorcery.
I made the following suggestion:
Remove the blue stuff for more black/red and possibly green stuff.
All and all, if you're deadset on not listening to critiques, why put this in a critique forum? I provided valid critiques and valid ideas. You told me it would "decrease consistency" without actually thinking about it. In reality, I increased your consistency, and you would know that if you thought about it a little. I also added robustness, but that's another story entirely.
Personally, I don't like this decks strategy. However...
Countryside Crusher benefits greatly from this strategy. Plus, it's "like" more seismic assaults. You run lots of lands, so he hits big when he's in play. He also gets bigger with your seismic assault.
If you want a backup plan, run Shard Convergence. If you can get Seismic to stick quickly, shard convergence the next turn gives you 8 damage by itself.
Spinerock Knoll is only going to trigger when you have seismic assault, meaning you win more with it. Cut it for basics.
I'd also run more removal in the red/black variety as this strategy doesn't seem too good with a blue base.
Sower of Temptation > Persuasion
Sower is a turn faster. That's important in all formats. You are using terms like "tempo", yet you are trying to add "resilience". If you want tempo, play the cheaper, more efficient way of doing it.
Thoughtseize is just better than Distress. Cost less. The two life doesn't matter as much considering you're probably never casting it more than once since you only have 2.
I agree that countersquall is better than Negate.
Anyways, there's not a matchup where I think the Profiteer is any good. You bribe a creature, they draw the removal and kill your profiteer and thank you for the card. Then they go on continuing what they did before you confused them.
And... I can't go on anymore. I see way too many problems and the creator of this simply thinks it's amazing and there's no swaying or critiquing. My suggestions would involve replacing the bad cards with the good cards, but he's dead set on those.
Fulminator Mage for 5cc, bant, and mirror.
Heap Doll for mirror and the random Unearth deck with Rotting Rats I seem to be attracted to on MWS. (seems better than mogg fanatic in the mirror, gets fetched by Ranger and recurred with Rev. You hit their two rev targets and ruin them, hopefully.)
Burrenton Forge-Tender for the Red deck.
Volcanic Fallout for Faeries, Kithkin, etc.
Wispmare for Faeries and decks that seem to rely on Oblivion Ring.
@ CopRed: I mean, I see your point. I really do. I'm not saying that Teeg alone is going to win games. But lets face it, two can play the game of just spouting off the good things their deck can do... for example:
Most Veangeant decks play between 25 and 28 mana producers, meaning that Teeg has effectively blanked about 1/3 of your business spells until you deal with him. Meanwhile, my Sower steals your 'Lark and my Sculler is keeping your Siege-Gang out of your hand while my Doran keeps swinging in.
While I haven't played against your deck, I have played against people playing Teeg. And Teeg just hasn't done anything that made me afraid of it yet.
I wasn't talking about seige-gang tokens blocking your doran all day, I was talking of my side of bringing in 4 Stillmoon Cavalier and 4 Voice of All (they are seriously confusing me on how much they dominate the game when they come in. I'm either playing against bad people [likely, I've been doing a lot of testing with the deck on MWS], or they are good. Not sure.)
But onto what I was saying before, it's not that the card is bad. The strategy required to use him is bad. By maindecking him, you are expecting him to blank out enough cards to let your dudes pound them to death before he can get rid of your other threats. If it was something like, a standstill or the like, I can understand, but at the moment he doesn't do enough to really get an inclusion.
I used the deck I'm playing as an example, and I'll do it again. You got rid of 1/3 of my "business". My business is an aggro strategy supplimented by big splashly effects. You got rid of a some of my big splashy effects. I'm still an aggro deck beating on you, and I still have big splashy effects left over even if I don't kill teeg. The point is, against Vengeant Lark, eventually you're going to have to block with Teeg, in which my other big splashy effects come on board and develop me just a little further. And besides, I've personally never really "needed" banefire in a lot of my matchups and have been considering putting redcap back in and boarding them for 5cc. This has nothing to do with Teeg, it's just that I'm using Banefire as a redcap without all the synergy, and have been thinking I should just get the synergy in there.
The biggest problem with rating Teeg is that magic currently isn't about singletons winning games and being "key" to the deck (you can remove all the Mystbind Cliques from Faeries, and it's still going to get you time after time. You can do the same with all the other top decks). Decks in the current metagame are very robust, and cover a wide-range of costing costs. Teeg eliminates some of them, but the rest of the deck is still there. Which could be something that gets around Teeg, or something that just kills Teeg.
Disregard this, I misread the card for some reason.
But basically, you're asking for a block deck plus m10, which sounds quite awful.
A.) It gives you Dragon Fodder. While it's just as fast as Bitterblossom in the early game, it allows a quick Progenitus later in the game.
B.) You get Volcanic Fallout and Pyroclasm in your board for aggro matchups.
C.) You also gain Double Negative for the Cascade decks, and you'll be able to cast it easily.
I'm almost 98% positive you're wrong on this one. I'm pretty sure the debate was actually between Architect's Will and Ponder when Ancestral Visions rotated out and Ponder won out for not being ****.
If he's trolling, why aren't you running him?
The fact of the matter is, with Path to Exile existing he really isn't that good as you never get the reanimate part ever. While Anathemancer does more damage quicker and cheaper.
Even before Anathemancer, people were not running Demigod. He's just too hard to cast at times.
White:
While it's good to see more cloudgoats, the first card to really pop out at me was Elite Vanguard. The problem I have is not really that it's a rehashed Savannah Lions, more that it's uncommon. I find that rather impressive, this seems to me that White Weenie is getting pushed as a concept as a whole instead of just Kithkin and/or Tokens.
As I make my way through the rest of the white cards, the next one I find intriguing is Harm's Way. While Shining Shoal was really good, I don't think this fits that bill. For effects like this, I think only two damage for 1 mana is a little low and unsatisfying. If it were 3, I'd definitely be playing this in constructed. However, the current makes it a high limited pick and in my opinion not much more.
While Open the Vaults gave me pause (There's really nothing good to do with this guys.), the next real card that I see is Silence. While not exactly Orim's Chant, it still probably has potential in some combo deck for forcing through. Just remember it's out there guys, not every chant like effect needs to be a lock. People were using Abeyance to push Cadavarous Blooms on the table well before Isochron Scepter.
That's pretty much I see for white. White Knight doesn't impress me much in this meta, but it's nice to see good 2 drops again.
Blue:
Going through blue, the first thing I really notice is Djinn of Wishes. This guy really seems like good potential. I liked Three Wishes before, and this is close to it.
Moving through the list, I find it aggravating that I have to buy a new playset of Remove Souls (Essence Scatter) and I find it funny that blue gets a Pacifism in Ice Cage. Is this now blue? Also, I see that Merfolk Looter is back and not Thought Courier. This makes me very happy as Thought Courier I hated and I love Looter. Could be that I can now use my Exodus Looters again. Mind Control is a little annoying and... I can keep using my Negates? Why do I have to buy new Remove Souls but don't lose my Negates. What's with the random renaming of cards? Just to force me to buy playsets of commons again? That's awkward.
Surprised to see Ponder, Tome Scour seems long overdue, and for some reason I really like Wall of Frost.
Black:
Yay Black Knight! Take THAT Path!
Cemetery Reaper is pretty friggin' sick. Seriously, making 3/3s for pretty much nothing is nothing to sneeze at. Plus, he's good at annoying the Reanimator decks that may or may not start appearing for whatever reason. (This is mainly the reason the Sphynx/Open the Vaults combo ain't going to work guys. This guy costs three, your combo costs like 12 million.)
I really like Doom Blade. Dread Warlock confuses me a little.
Duress actually depresses me. I hated playing against Duress in back in the day, at least Thoughtseize gives you the illusion of them having to jump through hurdles.
Haunting Echoes is nuts. I have fond memories of this card, and now I have thoughtseize and duress to make it work harder.
It seems rather odd that Mind Rot and Sign in Blood are in this set. Isn't Sign in Blood just better?
Relentless Rats makes me giggle. Gonna have some fun in standard again when I'm bored.
Red:
Act of Treason pisses me off. It's Threaten dammit!
I'm a big fan of Goblin Chieftan. This is exactly what the goblin lord should be.
Jackal Familiar... really? This guy is really good. If it's anything like Mogg Flunkies, two of these can attack together if I'm not mistaken. Either way, I can still see myself opening up with him, and playing Hellspark Elemental on turn 2, and ball lightning/boggart ram gang turn 3. Huge fan of this guy as his drawback is really not bad at all for a red deck.
Lightning Bolt really has me nervous. While I can't wait to play it, it just seems so strong.
Seriously guys, Magma Phoenix is just a bad Shard Phoenix. Being able to effectively use it's wrath effect is going to be really hard. I'd love to be proven wrong though.
Green:
Acidic Slime I'm a huge fan of. I've always loved Creeping Mold and sticking it on a 2/2 deathtouch for one more just makes me giddy.
Elvish Archdruid actually made me drop my jaw when I first saw it. Seriously, this may be too good while Lor is still legal. Imagine this in the Heritage Druid/Nettle Sentinel decks.
Is it bad that I think Mold Adder is better than Great Stable Stag?
Windstorm is really good I believe. Well, at least until the fall when all the flying tokens go away.
Artifact:
Mirror of Fate seems like it can do some stupid things. Time will probably have to tell on this one as I keep seeing DOOMSDAY on this card.
Lands:
Just to sum it up the new lands are good and so is the gargoyle land. The new lands are just flat out upgrades to the coastal towers of the past, and those were played as well. These are fine lands people.
All and all, the set actually sort of irritates me. Why make all the reprints with different names? I know it's profitable, but I figure not pissing off your clientelle is also profitable.
It's probably better for the game, I know this. I just find it irritating that I have to rebuy commons and uncommons. Not that I'm strapped for cash, just that it's tedious.
I overlook any cards or misevaluate?
1 Island
18 Plains
4 Path to Exile
4 Akrasan Squire
4 Vedalken Outlander
4 Knight of the White Orchid
4 Sigiled Paladin
3 Scepter of Dominance
4 Oblivion Ring
4 Ranger of Eos
4 Battlegrace Angel
2 Angelsong
My sideboard is janked out, but I've found that Angelic Benediction is sick in the mirror and mirror-like matches. And 4 Dispeller's Capsule are essential.
EDIT: Cut 2 plains for 2 angelsong.
Just saying.
1.) Provides a beater that hits for a lot.
2.) Digs you to your combo pieces, while being a beater.
3.) Turns your Seismic Assault activation into lightning bolts instead of shocks when both are in play.
I'm not seeing how adding an on color search engine makes it less consistent...
B.) ... you're deck is 66.6% lands. I don't think adding some G/R, G/B, and U/G lands will make it any less consistent. You really only need like 5 basics, and having basics for when they PtE your plumeviels is not awful.
C.) How does it help you kill when you don't have 10 lands? Is that Plumeveil you flip up going to be a defining card? The second assault? Or, more than likely, the other land you flip up because your deck is 66.6% lands.
D.) In my previous suggestions, you said I would reduce your consistency. Here's what your current plan is trying to do...
Cast a RRR enchantment.
Cast a 3BB instant.
Use a UUU creature for blocking.
Counter spells with a 1U instant, and setup with a U sorcery.
I made the following suggestion:
Remove the blue stuff for more black/red and possibly green stuff.
All and all, if you're deadset on not listening to critiques, why put this in a critique forum? I provided valid critiques and valid ideas. You told me it would "decrease consistency" without actually thinking about it. In reality, I increased your consistency, and you would know that if you thought about it a little. I also added robustness, but that's another story entirely.
Countryside Crusher benefits greatly from this strategy. Plus, it's "like" more seismic assaults. You run lots of lands, so he hits big when he's in play. He also gets bigger with your seismic assault.
If you want a backup plan, run Shard Convergence. If you can get Seismic to stick quickly, shard convergence the next turn gives you 8 damage by itself.
Spinerock Knoll is only going to trigger when you have seismic assault, meaning you win more with it. Cut it for basics.
I'd also run more removal in the red/black variety as this strategy doesn't seem too good with a blue base.
Sower of Temptation > Persuasion
Sower is a turn faster. That's important in all formats. You are using terms like "tempo", yet you are trying to add "resilience". If you want tempo, play the cheaper, more efficient way of doing it.
Thoughtseize is just better than Distress. Cost less. The two life doesn't matter as much considering you're probably never casting it more than once since you only have 2.
I agree that countersquall is better than Negate.
Anyways, there's not a matchup where I think the Profiteer is any good. You bribe a creature, they draw the removal and kill your profiteer and thank you for the card. Then they go on continuing what they did before you confused them.
And... I can't go on anymore. I see way too many problems and the creator of this simply thinks it's amazing and there's no swaying or critiquing. My suggestions would involve replacing the bad cards with the good cards, but he's dead set on those.
Anyways, yeah.... nice deck.
4 Heap Doll
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
3 Volcanic Fallout
3 Wispmare
Fulminator Mage for 5cc, bant, and mirror.
Heap Doll for mirror and the random Unearth deck with Rotting Rats I seem to be attracted to on MWS. (seems better than mogg fanatic in the mirror, gets fetched by Ranger and recurred with Rev. You hit their two rev targets and ruin them, hopefully.)
Burrenton Forge-Tender for the Red deck.
Volcanic Fallout for Faeries, Kithkin, etc.
Wispmare for Faeries and decks that seem to rely on Oblivion Ring.
Opinions?
While I haven't played against your deck, I have played against people playing Teeg. And Teeg just hasn't done anything that made me afraid of it yet.
I wasn't talking about seige-gang tokens blocking your doran all day, I was talking of my side of bringing in 4 Stillmoon Cavalier and 4 Voice of All (they are seriously confusing me on how much they dominate the game when they come in. I'm either playing against bad people [likely, I've been doing a lot of testing with the deck on MWS], or they are good. Not sure.)
But onto what I was saying before, it's not that the card is bad. The strategy required to use him is bad. By maindecking him, you are expecting him to blank out enough cards to let your dudes pound them to death before he can get rid of your other threats. If it was something like, a standstill or the like, I can understand, but at the moment he doesn't do enough to really get an inclusion.
I used the deck I'm playing as an example, and I'll do it again. You got rid of 1/3 of my "business". My business is an aggro strategy supplimented by big splashly effects. You got rid of a some of my big splashy effects. I'm still an aggro deck beating on you, and I still have big splashy effects left over even if I don't kill teeg. The point is, against Vengeant Lark, eventually you're going to have to block with Teeg, in which my other big splashy effects come on board and develop me just a little further. And besides, I've personally never really "needed" banefire in a lot of my matchups and have been considering putting redcap back in and boarding them for 5cc. This has nothing to do with Teeg, it's just that I'm using Banefire as a redcap without all the synergy, and have been thinking I should just get the synergy in there.
The biggest problem with rating Teeg is that magic currently isn't about singletons winning games and being "key" to the deck (you can remove all the Mystbind Cliques from Faeries, and it's still going to get you time after time. You can do the same with all the other top decks). Decks in the current metagame are very robust, and cover a wide-range of costing costs. Teeg eliminates some of them, but the rest of the deck is still there. Which could be something that gets around Teeg, or something that just kills Teeg.
EDIT: My illiteracy irritates me.
It averages a shock for me. You don't swing with him often, but I at least get 2 in most of the time. I could be trying to get greedy with it as well.