I've been trying to brainstorm a WUG deck with Doubling Season, since these colors really exploit their token/counter making abilities. Jenara was the only general that could abuse Doubling Season's counter doubling powers. I am working the last knots out of the build before putting it together. The main concerns are mana, and figuring out if the threat density is there. Would the rest of the Mirage tutors fit (Mystical, Worldly), or more creatures instead?
10-06-2009 : Revision 1
10-07-2009 : Revision 2
10-20-2009 : Revision 3
12-10-2010 : Revision 4
3-14-2011 : Revision 5
3-12-2013 : Revision 6 - Two years later and it rises like a Zombie.
I think you're missing two VERY important Enchantments: Mana Reflection-double mana=double counters for Jen! Sterling Grove-protect your enchantments in play OR get the one you need!
Doubling Season abuse? Planeswalker ftw!!! They come on the battlefield with twice more counters. So, where is Elspeth? And Ajani?
Luminarch Ascenscion seems a crap... And yay, Sterling Grove to find faster your Doubling Season or to protect it. Privilegied Position to protect your permanents from one-target spells.
Too less enchantments for Copy Enchantment. If you don't find your Doubling Season, it has no utility...
Oh, and forget Myojin of the cleansing fire : comes into play with 2 counters if you have doubling season, remove a counter, destroy all creatures => he still has a counter => indestructible. Funnyyyyyyyy!
Twilight Drover - Already in deck
Voidslime - Already in deck
Replacements
Coalition Relic - In place of Darksteel Ingot
Sterling Grove - In place of Copy Enchantment
Guilded Lotus - In place of Obelisk of Bant
Wickerbough Elder - In place of Stomphowler
Seaside Citadel - In place of Serra's Sanctum
Ajani Goldmane - In place of Ghostly Prison
Sylvan Library - In place of Sensei's Divining Top
Mana Reflection - In place of Luminarch Ascension
Thran Dynamo - In place of Eldrazi Monument
Experiment Kraj - 5 Creatures with activated abilities in deck, 4 of them I wouldn't get enough value to use on him. Plus the comp rules nerfed planeswalker abuse, reducing his usefulness
Elspeth - Don't have one, else it would be there
Supply // Demand - In the initial build, but got cut for space
Myojin of Cleansing Fire - Cut for space
Mirror-Sigil Sergeant - Not sure what I can cut for it
Plaxcaster Frogling - Not sure where I can cut for it
After a year of working with it, and then losing the most up to date list before breaking it down and rebuilding (don't do this), I have come back and adjusted my list. Here are the changes :
I am trying to move away from "stupid untouchable life total" gimmicks. Planeswalkers work better with Doubling Season, since they come into play with 2x counters.
Transcendant Master makes more board impact than the 1/1s that the Commander made. Plus being able to level him up for 6 with Season in play is a huge weight reduction.
I adjusted the signet mana base to avoid splash damage damage from sweepers. Mox Diamond can easily pick up the acceleration slack. Man lands bump up the sweeper-proof offensive options. I cut Crop Rotation after having the land sac be relevant in a couple of games where mana was not playing nice. Reap and Sow does the tutoring just as effectively with a bonus. Thawing Glaciers stifled my mana too much when it was online in the early game, didn't matter in the late game. Emeria gives me some options in the late game to recur some relevant creatures for the moment.
These were upgrades from lesser used effects to shore up weaknesses in the deck. Venser permits a game ending alpha strike, or just doubling up on a card with counters that came in pre-Season. Spiral feels unfair one half of the time, and burns the the other half. Engine is a fat colorless beater, and getting 4 tokens when Season is in is just icing. Mind's Eye was less effective than preferred. Lux Cannon gives me repeated spot removal.
Trapping into a small creature or one that doesn't address the issues at hand is a sad face. Rhystic Study is a great draw engine, even if it does gather attention.
You're missing Forgotten Ancient. In my testing he's absolutely insane.
For recycling cards, I'd use Loaming Shaman instead of Ulamog unless you're that afraid of combo milling. The Shaman also acts as grave hate and is repeatable with bounce/Venser.
I don't think you're running enough plains to support Emeria.
Which comes to the next point. +1/+1 tokens can abuse the hell out of Persist abilities like Shepherd and Woodfall Primus and Glen Eledra Archmage.
You should be running Lighting Greaves for protection/haste for Jenara. Also, Vanishing. Leave two mana open and she's pretty much untouchable. Phasing doesn't remove any of her counters either.
This deck has inspired me to make a similar deck. I've wanted to make a bant edh, but I didn't feel like making a Rafiq deck. This one looks like a blast for multiplayer, which is what I mostly play, and I have almost all the cards.
In your experience so far, what would you say are the decks biggest weaknesses?
You might want to consider Hallowed Burial over Final Judgment, for two reasons:
- tucks nasty generals away where they can't be re-cast.
- makes sure you won't accidentally RFG your own creatures.
Couple other small changes I would consider:
- Add some proliferators. They seem to be quite good in your deck. Specifically, Inexorable Tide and Contagion Clasp/Engine.
- I'll second the request for Cauldron of Souls. It should make your team very hard to kill.
- I'll also second the request for the persist creatures. They are usually good in a vacuum, and they happen to be even better with your deck.
- Add some more lands. 32 is not enough in EDH (it's equivalent to about 19 lands in Constructed decks and 12 lands in Limited decks).
- Cut Brainstorm. Unlike Legacy/Vintage, it's just not good in this format.
- Cut Trigon of Thought. It's too slow to be worthwhile. For the six mana it takes to draw one card, you could get tons more with Recurring Insight or Arcanis the Omnipotent.
- Cut Ratchet Bomb. It's also way too slow for this format. There are better choices for just about anything you might want to accomplish with this card.
- Cut Force of Will. It's a fine card in a vacuum, but you aren't guaranteed to have a blue card to exile, and it's card disadvantage when you do. Pact of Negation is almost always better.
- Cut Akroma. Yeah, I said it. Like FoW, she's great in a vacuum, but you aren't playing in a vacuum. There are bigger, badder, better cards that actually interact with the rest of your deck.
- Cut Transcendant Master. It's kinda meh unless it's at ultimate, and by that time someone will find an answer to it. I'm not saying it's bad, just that you can do better.
- Cut Deranged Hermit. For one more mana, Captain of the Watch gives its friends vigilance AND doesn't require you to pay echo.
As a little bit of background, I neglected this list for almost a year prior to my last adjustments. In that time, I disassembled the deck and had returned to it. The base list was so out of date, that my information was bad, and a lot of stuff had been missed. I'm still adjusting the deck to accomodate some of the things I am remembering since then.
The biggest weakness I have had with the deck to date is it's a momentum engine. It is a very slow start, but blows up after a bit of building. A rush deck, or a few opponents focusing on you early puts you on the back heel fast.
Taking information into consideration, plus play experience I have made the following changes.
Removed lackluster cards for cards that interact better with Season. Somehow I missed the Ancient, not sure why or how. Ant Queen just vomits tokens over time, and keeps people off of you. Seedborn muse interacts with token vomit and allows near-vigilant combat.
The need to hit your mana as quickly as possible is paramount. This allows you to get any two colors you need (via duals) on turn 1. Turns questionable land keeps into winners.
The increase in green and the unreliability of the Emeria plan caused me to abandon the overall setup. Glaciers and Seedborn Muse makes for an insane rate of development.
Venser was unfortunately not performing to expectation. I didn't have enough effects to abuse the blink, and often Venser would not last long enough to ultimate. Switched to the "anti-sweep" option, keeping what blink options I have available.
Reverting back. The front end mana investment was just too much. Suspending Ancestral in early turns sets a good possibility of hand refill just when needed.
I felt like I had too many ways to blow things up, and not enough ways to get moving. Night Soil doubles as GY hate as well as assists with token generation. Time Spiral is too good to pass up in the deck just as a solid resource reset. Mana Reflection obviously makes this bonkers.
Too much high cost acceleration was costing me in the early game. No defense or development was choking me out. Pulse gives me effective lifegain in the clutch, and Propaganda will help keep me safe in the early game for a little while.
I understand the cauldron's effectiveness, but I ultimately decided against including it because of the poor interaction with DS. My old Kresh deck would have loved it, though. Getting to rebuy creatures in a sac heavy deck would've been insane.
I considered Greaves briefly. I had to turn it down simply because Jenara is not a slow general. Jenara was chosen as the general simply because the abilities interact with DS the best, and I can run her out there on turn 3. I ran the deck with Treva as the general for a while, but never cast it. The deck fortunately doesn't crumble if Jenara doesn't see play, but if everything is online, it doesn't take long for her to put an opponent down.
Contagion Engine and Contagion Clasp might fit in well here.
I tried Clasp previously, but it didn't seem to have much impact. Engine may be a consideration in the future. I will be looking into it if there are still issues.
Doubling Cube is cute and all but the problem is that if you play it out early, it doesnt actually provide you any mana until you already had the ability to generate 7 mana... At which rate you tend to be better off with Mirari's Wake and Mana Reflection. The cube is really quite amusing when looknig at really lolz mana like some mono green decks or a black deck that wants to drop lolz mana into an Exsanguinate but shy of those I personally would take a mana double effect instead as it allows you to cluster your mana a bit more instead of blowing it all at once. This allows for better use of instant speed responses and what not.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
I'm really not a fan of Doubling Cube. It takes at least 7 mana to make a profit, and in a deck like Jenara that can do things so much faster, it just slows everything down imo. That being said, if you are going to run "mana doublers", start with Mirari's Wake and decide if you want Mana Reflection after that.
I'm really not a fan of Doubling Cube. It takes at least 7 mana to make a profit, and in a deck like Jenara that can do things so much faster, it just slows everything down imo. That being said, if you are going to run "mana doublers", start with Mirari's Wake and decide if you want Mana Reflection after that.
I couldn't have said it better ^ that's the way I would roll with mana double effects in multicolored decks.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
After being out of EDH for about almost 2 years, it's time to drag her out of mothballs.
This deck was initially going to shift to Ghave right after the Commander decks came out, but it never was fully converted. The entire pile sat dormant until now.
With the full 10 guilds from RTR block being released, we can provide a pretty substantial update to this list.
There was a mass of card draw that was doing nothing but card draw. To a degree, it's fine. The list had a critical mass, which causing dead turns if drawn early. The card draw effects were thinned out. Most of the card draw in the list is now permanent based and recurring.
There is a slow evolution in my list from the "Token Swarm" plan to a "Bigger/Cloned Tokens" strategy. These all line up with that plan, using populate and fat tokens, or token copies to make a more difficult to handle creature base.
The counters provided by the replacements interact with Doubling Season, as well as with Zameck Guildmage. Elder fell out due to the shrinking basic count in the list.
I noted that all my "Must Counter" spells were happening later in the game. This makes bumping up the mana cost on a counterspell insignificant. Getting a token of a "Whelk-like" ability is a strict upgrade for this list.
Odds and ends upgrades. The tuck from Terminus outweighs the mana investment needed to get Coup to Wrath stage. Bramblecrush is a "handle-all" permanent removal spell. Ghostway works poorly with the tokens, so it was moved to a "free" counter. Charm was implimented to handle fatty control. Tamiyo going ultimate on drop with a Doubling Season trumps the Mind Taker for this list.
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1 Jenara, Asura of War
Creature
2 Academy Rector
3 Diluvian Primordial
4 Eternal Witness
5 Experiment One
6 Fathom Mage
7 Forgotten Ancient
8 Mayor of Avabruck
9 Mycoloth
10 Mystic Snake
11 Noble Hierarch
12 Seedborn Muse
13 Sphinx of Uthuun
14 Sylvan Primordial
15 Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
16 Ulamog, the Infininte Gyre
17 Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage
18 Worldspine Wurm
19 Wurmcoil Engine
20 Zameck Guildmage
Enchantment
21 Back From the Brink
22 Doubling Season
23 Ghostly Prison
24 Gutter Grime
25 Mana Reflection
26 Rhystic Study
27 Rites of Flourishing
28 Sterling Grove
29 Sylvan Library
Instant
30 Bant Charm
31 Cackling Counterpart
32 Capsize
33 Counterlash
34 Enlightened Tutor
35 Fact or Fiction
36 Hinder
37 Intuition
38 Mystic Genesis
39 Oblation
40 Pulse of the Fields
41 Rewind
42 Selesnya Charm
43 Swords to Plowshares
44 Trickbind
45 Voidslime
46 Acquire
47 Bramblecrush
48 Bribery
49 Decree of Justice
50 Final Judgment
51 Rite of Replication
52 Safewright Quest
53 Spelltwine
54 Supreme Verdict
55 Terminus
56 Time Spiral
57 Unexpected Results
Planeswalker
58 Elspeth, Knight Errant
59 Garruk Wildspeaker
60 Jace Beleren
61 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
Artifact
62 Coalition Relic
63 Mana Crypt
64 Mimic Vat
65 Nevinyrral's Disk
66 Relic of Progenitus
67 Sol Ring
Land
68 Azorius Chancery
69 Azorius Guildgate
70 Breeding Pool
71 Celestial Colonade
72 Command Tower
73 Flooded Strand
74 Gaea's Cradle
75 Grove of the Guardian
76 Hallowed Fountain
77 Maze of Ith
78 Misty Rainforest
79 Reflecting Pool
80 Reliquary Tower
81 Rupture Spire
82 Savannah
83 Selesnya Guildgate
84 Selesnya Sanctuary
85 Simic Growth Chamber
86 Simic Guildgate
87 Stirring Wildwood
88 Strip Mine
89 Temple Garden
90 Transguild Promenade
91 Tropical Island
92 Tundra
93 Windswept Heath
94 Plains
95 Plains
96 Island
97 Island
98 Forest
99 Forest
100 Forest
I've been trying to brainstorm a WUG deck with Doubling Season, since these colors really exploit their token/counter making abilities. Jenara was the only general that could abuse Doubling Season's counter doubling powers. I am working the last knots out of the build before putting it together. The main concerns are mana, and figuring out if the threat density is there. Would the rest of the Mirage tutors fit (Mystical, Worldly), or more creatures instead?
10-06-2009 : Revision 1
10-07-2009 : Revision 2
10-20-2009 : Revision 3
12-10-2010 : Revision 4
3-14-2011 : Revision 5
3-12-2013 : Revision 6 - Two years later and it rises like a Zombie.
Experiment Kraj
Mirror-Sigil Sergeant
Plaxcaster Frogling
Twilight Drover
Also Voidslime for a good counter, both Ajani Goldmane and Elspeth, Knight-Errant are good generals for Doubling Season. Also Coalition Relic is good for mana fixing/acceleration, and works better with, yet again, Doubling Season.
Mana Reflection-double mana=double counters for Jen!
Sterling Grove-protect your enchantments in play OR get the one you need!
Also, Sylvan Library is very good card advantage!
I'd suggest replacing: 56 Darksteel Ingot & 62 Obelisk of Bant with Gilded Lotus and maybe Thran Dynamo? Something that gives you more than +1 mana. You could even consider Kodama's Reach and Explosive Vegetation.
*Mayreturn*
I have some EDH cards and rare Magic basic lands (APAC, EURO, ARENA, etc) so message me if you're looking.
Number of members banned after I posted a BTR: 7
Looking for honest buyers, sellers, and traders.
Luminarch Ascenscion seems a crap... And yay, Sterling Grove to find faster your Doubling Season or to protect it. Privilegied Position to protect your permanents from one-target spells.
Supply (Supply/Demand), tokens or tutor, is good too.
Wickerbough Elder is better than Indrik Stomphowler, especially with Doubling Season.
Too less enchantments for Copy Enchantment. If you don't find your Doubling Season, it has no utility...
Oh, and forget Myojin of the cleansing fire : comes into play with 2 counters if you have doubling season, remove a counter, destroy all creatures => he still has a counter => indestructible. Funnyyyyyyyy!
Voidslime - Already in deck
Replacements
Coalition Relic - In place of Darksteel Ingot
Sterling Grove - In place of Copy Enchantment
Guilded Lotus - In place of Obelisk of Bant
Wickerbough Elder - In place of Stomphowler
Seaside Citadel - In place of Serra's Sanctum
Ajani Goldmane - In place of Ghostly Prison
Sylvan Library - In place of Sensei's Divining Top
Mana Reflection - In place of Luminarch Ascension
Thran Dynamo - In place of Eldrazi Monument
Experiment Kraj - 5 Creatures with activated abilities in deck, 4 of them I wouldn't get enough value to use on him. Plus the comp rules nerfed planeswalker abuse, reducing his usefulness
Elspeth - Don't have one, else it would be there
Supply // Demand - In the initial build, but got cut for space
Myojin of Cleansing Fire - Cut for space
Mirror-Sigil Sergeant - Not sure what I can cut for it
Plaxcaster Frogling - Not sure where I can cut for it
Updated list in first post.
This build proceeded to win at the one Pickup EDH event I played that weekend. Acquiring the Sharuum's Magister Sphinx on turn 5 was house.
--->DJ
Eternity Vessel -> Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Beacon of Immortality -> Elspeth, Knight Errant
I am trying to move away from "stupid untouchable life total" gimmicks. Planeswalkers work better with Doubling Season, since they come into play with 2x counters.
Tolarian Academy -> Tundra
Banning replacement, and scored a Tundra
Benalish Commander -> Transcendant Master
Transcendant Master makes more board impact than the 1/1s that the Commander made. Plus being able to level him up for 6 with Season in play is a huge weight reduction.
Azorius Signet -> Celestial Colonade
Simic Signet -> Mox Diamond
Selesnya Signet -> Stirring Wildwood
Thawing Glaciers -> Emeria, the Sky Ruin
Crop Rotation -> Reap and Sow
I adjusted the signet mana base to avoid splash damage damage from sweepers. Mox Diamond can easily pick up the acceleration slack. Man lands bump up the sweeper-proof offensive options. I cut Crop Rotation after having the land sac be relevant in a couple of games where mana was not playing nice. Reap and Sow does the tutoring just as effectively with a bonus. Thawing Glaciers stifled my mana too much when it was online in the early game, didn't matter in the late game. Emeria gives me some options in the late game to recur some relevant creatures for the moment.
Day of Judgment -> Final Judgment
The exile is becoming more important as more indestructible creatures are becoming relevant.
Ajani Goldmane -> Elspeth Tirel
Extra sweeper, and better Season abuse options (tokens, insta-sweep).
Rampaging Baloths -> Primeval Titan
A flat better creature.
Wargate -> Venser, the Sojourner
Time Spiral -> Wurmcoil Engine
Mind's Eye -> Lux Cannon
These were upgrades from lesser used effects to shore up weaknesses in the deck. Venser permits a game ending alpha strike, or just doubling up on a card with counters that came in pre-Season. Spiral feels unfair one half of the time, and burns the the other half. Engine is a fat colorless beater, and getting 4 tokens when Season is in is just icing. Mind's Eye was less effective than preferred. Lux Cannon gives me repeated spot removal.
Tormod's Crypt -> Relic of Progenitus
95% straight upgrade.
Ancestral Vision -> Trigon of Thought
Better interaction with Season, less attention due to non-burst card draw.
Condemn -> Oblation
Better, less conditional general/creature tuck. Plus it can be clutch card draw when you tuck a token you have.
Primal Command -> Rachet Bomb
Better interaction with Season, and more pinpoint sweeping.
Summoning Trap -> Rhystic Study
Trapping into a small creature or one that doesn't address the issues at hand is a sad face. Rhystic Study is a great draw engine, even if it does gather attention.
Seat of the Synod -> Reliquary Tower
Tower is 100% better without Academy to abuse the Seat's artifact-ness.
Sakura-Tribe Elder -> Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
Switching gears. Yavimaya Elder works for my basic search, and this helps recycle cards in the graveyard.
Path to Exile -> Mimic Vat
Not a direct transfer, but the ability to pinpoint eat opponent's cards is invaluable. Season abuse makes it all the sweeter.
Island -> Plains
One land adjustment to help facilitate getting Emeria online more consistently.
For recycling cards, I'd use Loaming Shaman instead of Ulamog unless you're that afraid of combo milling. The Shaman also acts as grave hate and is repeatable with bounce/Venser.
I don't think you're running enough plains to support Emeria.
You need some form of protection against sweepers, which you have none. Ghostway, Twilight Shepherd, Dauntless Escort, and Loxodon Hierarch would work. Or, my personal favorite... Cauldron of Souls. If you can keep +1/+1 tokens on your creatures they are basically indestructible (ie. Ajani Goldmane).
Which comes to the next point. +1/+1 tokens can abuse the hell out of Persist abilities like Shepherd and Woodfall Primus and Glen Eledra Archmage.
You should be running Lighting Greaves for protection/haste for Jenara. Also, Vanishing. Leave two mana open and she's pretty much untouchable. Phasing doesn't remove any of her counters either.
Commander/EDH:
WU Hanna, Ship's Navigator WU
GW Saffi Eriksdotter GW
BW Selenia, Dark Angel BW
W Heliod, God of Sun W
Retired:
Jenara, Asura of War Thada Adel, Acquisitor Jaya Ballard, Task Mage Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero Lyzolda, the Blood Witch Akroma, Angel of Wrath Nath of the Gilt-Leaf Tajic, Blade of the Legion Selvala, Explorer Returned Maga, Traitor to Mortals
Tiny Leaders:
W Mangara of Corondor W
In your experience so far, what would you say are the decks biggest weaknesses?
GAzusa, Lost but SeekingG
WBVish Kal, Blood ArbiterWB
WBRKaalia of the VastWBR
UBGVorosh, the HunterUBG
WRGisela, Blade of GoldnightWR
WUGJenara, Asura of WarWUG
WBGTeneb, The HarvesterWBG
WUBRGHorde of NotionsWUBRG
- tucks nasty generals away where they can't be re-cast.
- makes sure you won't accidentally RFG your own creatures.
Couple other small changes I would consider:
- Add some proliferators. They seem to be quite good in your deck. Specifically, Inexorable Tide and Contagion Clasp/Engine.
- I'll second the request for Cauldron of Souls. It should make your team very hard to kill.
- I'll also second the request for the persist creatures. They are usually good in a vacuum, and they happen to be even better with your deck.
- Add some more lands. 32 is not enough in EDH (it's equivalent to about 19 lands in Constructed decks and 12 lands in Limited decks).
- Cut Brainstorm. Unlike Legacy/Vintage, it's just not good in this format.
- Cut Trigon of Thought. It's too slow to be worthwhile. For the six mana it takes to draw one card, you could get tons more with Recurring Insight or Arcanis the Omnipotent.
- Cut Ratchet Bomb. It's also way too slow for this format. There are better choices for just about anything you might want to accomplish with this card.
- Cut Force of Will. It's a fine card in a vacuum, but you aren't guaranteed to have a blue card to exile, and it's card disadvantage when you do. Pact of Negation is almost always better.
- Cut Akroma. Yeah, I said it. Like FoW, she's great in a vacuum, but you aren't playing in a vacuum. There are bigger, badder, better cards that actually interact with the rest of your deck.
- Cut Transcendant Master. It's kinda meh unless it's at ultimate, and by that time someone will find an answer to it. I'm not saying it's bad, just that you can do better.
- Cut Deranged Hermit. For one more mana, Captain of the Watch gives its friends vigilance AND doesn't require you to pay echo.
Hope that helps you.
The biggest weakness I have had with the deck to date is it's a momentum engine. It is a very slow start, but blows up after a bit of building. A rush deck, or a few opponents focusing on you early puts you on the back heel fast.
Taking information into consideration, plus play experience I have made the following changes.
Akroma, Angel of Wrath >>> Forgotten Ancient
Deranged Hermit >>> Ant Queen
Transcendant Master >>> Verdant Force
Twilight Drover >>> Seedborn Muse
Removed lackluster cards for cards that interact better with Season. Somehow I missed the Ancient, not sure why or how. Ant Queen just vomits tokens over time, and keeps people off of you. Seedborn muse interacts with token vomit and allows near-vigilant combat.
Brainstorm >>> Stroke of Genius
Force of Will >>> Mystical Tutor
Card draw and card quality upgrades. Near full hands are almost never wasted.
Reap and Sow >>> Safewright Quest
The need to hit your mana as quickly as possible is paramount. This allows you to get any two colors you need (via duals) on turn 1. Turns questionable land keeps into winners.
Emeria, the Sky Ruin >>> Thawing Glaciers
Plains >>> Forest
Plains >>> Forest
The increase in green and the unreliability of the Emeria plan caused me to abandon the overall setup. Glaciers and Seedborn Muse makes for an insane rate of development.
Wasteland >>> Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree
Too much landkill was affecting the consistency of my deck. I swapped to Vitu-Ghazi for another token engine
Venser, the Sojourner >>> Ghostway
Venser was unfortunately not performing to expectation. I didn't have enough effects to abuse the blink, and often Venser would not last long enough to ultimate. Switched to the "anti-sweep" option, keeping what blink options I have available.
Trigon of Thought >>> Ancestral Vision
Reverting back. The front end mana investment was just too much. Suspending Ancestral in early turns sets a good possibility of hand refill just when needed.
Rachet Bomb >>> Night Soil
Lux Cannon >>> Time Spiral
I felt like I had too many ways to blow things up, and not enough ways to get moving. Night Soil doubles as GY hate as well as assists with token generation. Time Spiral is too good to pass up in the deck just as a solid resource reset. Mana Reflection obviously makes this bonkers.
Guilded Lotus >>> Pulse of the Fields
Thran Dynamo >>> Propaganda
Too much high cost acceleration was costing me in the early game. No defense or development was choking me out. Pulse gives me effective lifegain in the clutch, and Propaganda will help keep me safe in the early game for a little while.
I understand the cauldron's effectiveness, but I ultimately decided against including it because of the poor interaction with DS. My old Kresh deck would have loved it, though. Getting to rebuy creatures in a sac heavy deck would've been insane.
I considered Greaves briefly. I had to turn it down simply because Jenara is not a slow general. Jenara was chosen as the general simply because the abilities interact with DS the best, and I can run her out there on turn 3. I ran the deck with Treva as the general for a while, but never cast it. The deck fortunately doesn't crumble if Jenara doesn't see play, but if everything is online, it doesn't take long for her to put an opponent down.
Update is now on the main list.
Most recently looking at Morinfen!
I tried Clasp previously, but it didn't seem to have much impact. Engine may be a consideration in the future. I will be looking into it if there are still issues.
2 mana to play,
3 mana to activate.
Double all of your unspent mana in your mana pool.
Signature by Inkfox Aesthetics by Xen
[Modern] Allies
UWU/W BlinkUW
BMono-Black ControlB
Commander:
GWUJenaraGWU
BGeth MBCB
RGXenagosRG
WUBSharuumWUB (retired)
Modern:
xAffinityx (starting)
Standard:
Ha! That's a good one.
I couldn't have said it better
Signature by Inkfox Aesthetics by Xen
[Modern] Allies
This deck was initially going to shift to Ghave right after the Commander decks came out, but it never was fully converted. The entire pile sat dormant until now.
With the full 10 guilds from RTR block being released, we can provide a pretty substantial update to this list.
First things first... Manabase Upgrades! :
Forest >>> Selesnya Guildgate
Island >>> Simic Guildgate
Plains >>> Azorius Guildgate
Seaside Citadel >>> Command Tower
Thawing Glaciers >>> Transguild Promenade
Banned Slot Update! :
Primeval Titan >>> Sylvan Primordial
Now to the meat!
Stroke of Genius >>> Diluvian Primordial
Ancestral Vision >>> Sphinx of Uthuun
Memory Jar >>> Cackling Counterpart
There was a mass of card draw that was doing nothing but card draw. To a degree, it's fine. The list had a critical mass, which causing dead turns if drawn early. The card draw effects were thinned out. Most of the card draw in the list is now permanent based and recurring.
Propaganda >>> Ghostly Prison
This was strictly an asthetic change. Foil Prisons are obtainable, where Propagandas are not.
Wrath of God >>> Supreme Verdict
Strict upgrade for this list. The blue requirement is a non-issue.
Ant Queen >>> Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
Azorius Guildmage >>> Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage
Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree >>> Grove of the Guardian
Verdant Force >>> Worldspine Wurm
Elspeth Tirel >>> Back From the Brink
There is a slow evolution in my list from the "Token Swarm" plan to a "Bigger/Cloned Tokens" strategy. These all line up with that plan, using populate and fat tokens, or token copies to make a more difficult to handle creature base.
Rhys the Redeemed >>> Experiment One
Solemn Simulacrum >>> Fathom Mage
Yavimaya Elder >>> Zameck Guildmage
The counters provided by the replacements interact with Doubling Season, as well as with Zameck Guildmage. Elder fell out due to the shrinking basic count in the list.
Draining Whelk >>> Mystic Genesis
Counterspell >>> Counterlash
I noted that all my "Must Counter" spells were happening later in the game. This makes bumping up the mana cost on a counterspell insignificant. Getting a token of a "Whelk-like" ability is a strict upgrade for this list.
Regrowth >>> Spelltwine
Mox Diamond >>> Unexpected Results
This was swapped as a conscious effort to reduce the consistency of the list. There's few things more exciting than Unexpected Results.
Wickerbough Elder >>> Mayor of Avabruck
Night Soil >>> Gutter Grime
Token Generators. Gutter Grime gets to double dip on Doubling Season.
Martial Coup >>> Terminus
Treachery >>> Bramblecrush
Ghostway >>> Rewind
Mystical Tutor >>> Selesnya Charm
Jace, the Mind Sculptor >>> Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
Odds and ends upgrades. The tuck from Terminus outweighs the mana investment needed to get Coup to Wrath stage. Bramblecrush is a "handle-all" permanent removal spell. Ghostway works poorly with the tokens, so it was moved to a "free" counter. Charm was implimented to handle fatty control. Tamiyo going ultimate on drop with a Doubling Season trumps the Mind Taker for this list.