TL:DR: Flash in big stuff with cool effects,
Second Sunrise
or Faith's Reward it back while staying ahead on card advantage and playing a more control-oriented game until I can commit threats to the board. Trying to figure out best way to tutor up flash/SS/FR Other deck options listed below.
KEY COMPONENTS:
While I put this deck under lifegain- which it does slightly do- it's really much more of an aggro-control deck. The main synergy of the deck is the five mana Flash
+
Second Sunrise
(or Faith's Reward for 1 more, but 1 less white- relevant in a 3 color deck, even though the majority of my land base is white). This allows you to flash in a creature- say Pelakka Wurm or Keiga- and have their enters the battle field and death triggers happen immediately (thanks to not paying their cost with flash). From there, we can second sunrise and bring back the creature for another enters the battlefield trigger and the creature on board (2WWB: gain 14 life, draw a card, and put a 7/7 trampler onto the battlefield. Yes please!).
Since most of my creatures have death triggers, and since I'm an aggro-control deck, a sweeper was necessary. I like Supreme Verdict a lot, so that was my sweeper of choice; if you aren't worried about being countered, wrath might be the better option to be less blue dependent. The important thing, however, is the low mana cost: this allows us to verdict, then faith's reward to get a whole host of death triggers/etb triggers. Additionally, remember to use Faith's reward for sweepers; otherwise, you don't really accomplish anything (second sunrise is a global effect; hence why most of our spot removal is exile/gain control).
Flash Targets:
Pelakka Wurm
: this is a go to flash target. Two mana for gain seven life, draw a card. On top of that, it adds a potent threat to the board when it's SS'd or FR'd back, providing me with a nice beatdown gameplan protected by momentary blinks. This is by far the best budget flasher: it runs about 14 cents.
Sylvan Primordial: This is one of the flashes that I'm quite happy to make on turn 2, without getting him back (unless emeria activates- then he's the first target most likely). This deck doesn't have the strongest early game, and so being able to set all of your opponents back down to 1 land (or 0 lands, if you went first) is nearly good enough already- it's basically a sinkhole- but on top of that you get to put 3 forests onto the battlefield; this allows us to fetch our 3 shocks and give ourselves a beautiful mana base. A more competitive build would run more sylvan (at the expense of Pelakka Wurm) and some Eternal Witness. NOTE: I just realized that I've been assuming 4 players; he can generate even more value otherwise.
Keiga, the Tide Star: with flash, this is a 2 mana "take control of target creature." With flash + second sunrise, this is pure value. This is our main method of spot removal, and it generates value as well.
Luminate Primordial
: Not as good at spot removal as Keiga, but hits a target for each player with Swords to Plowshares. Exile effect can be stronger against things with global effects that we don't like- Sire Of Insanity springs to mind.
Protean Hulk: Usually looking to tutor for Keiga off a flash, although 2 wall of omens and 2 spore frog is definitely an option. Alternative builds of the deck let him also tutor for Acidic slime, Forest Dryads, 6 of Soul Warden/Soul's Attendant/Essence Warden (if you're playing creature based decks, especially token spam, this can be quite hilarious post board, if there's any boarding).
Support Cards:
Spore Frog: helps me last; this deck has a fairly weak early game, so a fog effect (especially one that can be bought back later) is invaluable, especially one I can throw out at 1 mana and let sit there for the rest of the game (since flash + ss/fr are instants, I can use flash shenanigans at the end of an opponent's turn after I've sacked Spore Frog).
Wall of Omens: Draws cards; is a blocker; is a mana source with ashnod's altar to let me draw more cards via sphinx's rev.
Momentary Blink: Mainly protection from exile effects for my creatures. Can also do fun things with the primordials, pelakka wurm, and wall of omens. Card that I could definitely see cutting; I'm not primary a blink deck, and I don't really want to be.
Ashnod's Altar: sack engines work quite well with second sunrise. Later in the game, this allows you to cast supreme verdict into faith's reward for WWWB, and is even better with Cataclysm (I'll get to this in SB discussion). Also gives quite large sphinx's revs for the cost of a few spore frogs and wall of omens. [Potential synergy: Wargate is a sideboard option for both fetching the altar and abusing it- altar makes it fairly simple to wargate for six or seven).
Sphinx's Revelation: Flash's biggest problem is the fact that it uses up a lot of cards- flash/creature/second sunrise is 3 cards for essentially 1 or 2 effects. Sphinx's Rev helps us stay alive against more aggressive decks while making us a tough force to handle with a hand full of cards in the late game. A must for the deck. Only a 2 of since we really don't want a sphinx's rev during the early game, and even during the middle game it might not be the best use of our resources. It really helps our late game be dominant.
Mnemonic Wall: buys back our flashes/second sunrises/faith's rewards/even supreme verdicts if we need them. Eternal Witness is likely a better fit for the deck, but also costs money; see other options below. One of the better targets for our Momentary Blinks.
Emeria, The Sky Ruin: This deck, thanks to the combination of lifegain + controlling elements, tends to see longer games. Since we can get out reusable Grasslands and Flood Plains, we can often get to 7 plains fairly quickly. Additionally, A flash'd Sylvan Primordial can nab us two more. This allows us to get more value off of creatures that we sacked early in the match: spore frogs, chump blocker wall of omens, and eternal witness or Mnemonic Walls, and a flashed Sylvan Primordial. I'll see how it does testing, but I'm definitely going to try it out; I think it'll help us win grindier matches, especially since Mnemonic Wall/Eternal Witness now gives us infinite Second Sunrise/Faith's Reward.
OTHER OPTIONS:
Budget Based Changes:
As I mentioned above, this is a BUDGET deck. That means that there are several changes that could easily be made to improve it. I'll start with the more obvious ones:
Full set of fetches and shocks. We have enough lifegain to offset the fetches easily, and we might shock one land a game to hit a turn 2 or turn 5 land drop on curve (maybe turn 8 for Cataclysm/Supreme Verdict on curve). Otherwise, they come in tapped.
Eternal Witness: goes bonkers in this deck. If you can get your hands on some, this is the biggest change you can make; couple with an additional Sylvan Primordial and push your mana curve slightly towards green.
Cataclysm: A resolved Cataclysm + Faith's Reward is essentially a game win; if it isn't, you're using the deck wrong.
Thragtusk: Can be used over Pelakka wurm if you want more value outside of flash/if you feel you don't need the card draw.
Worldspine Wurm: this thing is a ridiculous turn 2 flash, or a turn 5 flash and reanimate (you can second sunrise with the shuffle trigger on the stack. I didn't feel like it fit the theme of the deck, but it's certainly a fun option to play around with if you want to go for a more competitive route.
Mystical Tutor: Tutoring for flash turn 1 is probably the best turn 1 play we could ask for, especially with a sylvan primordial in hand.
Phyrexian Altar: except for Sphinx's Rev, this is MUCH better for the deck than Ashnod's altar. Generally speaking is always better, since the deck likes being able to have multiple colors available to it of creature sacks. This allows you to second sunrise just off creature sacks, which is great for the deck. Arguably pair this with a fourth second sunrise.
Other Options:
In an alternative build, you could run no 2 drops other than flash, and run
Shardless Agent
as 4 more flashes. Muddle the Mixture is transmute for flash, but is both more expensive than mystical tutor and also costlier in terms of blue mana, which we don't have a lot of. Eggs are an option. I'm not Stanislav Cifka, but some eggs can still be relevant in the deck. If you have Mystical Tutor for instance, Conjurer's Bauble is a fairly relevant card to run for recurring flashes/ss's/fr's. Flashed
Moldgraf Monstrosity
allows you to grab 2 creatures at random from your graveyard and recurr them; useful if you had to sweep without Faith's Reward/someone else swept when you were tapped out. Vedalken Orrery or Leyline of Anticipation are always useful in multiplayer, and help avoid not having a second sunrise/faith's reward available when you need it. These play well with a more counter heavy, controllier deck. Sakura-Tribe Elder is reusable basic land tutor. Acidic Slime and Krosan Grip were both on my short list of possible cards that got cut; of the two, I prefer Krosan for greater utility + instant speed outside of flash. Certain enchantments are quite annoying for us to deal with; namely those that prevent our lifegain, like Sulfuric Vortex.
Deglamer
or it's sister
Unravel the Aether
are possibilities for dealing with the extremely annoying noncreature Erebos, God of the Dead; I'd probably just board them in if I knew I'd be playing a deck with him though. Lastly Bant Charm can provide removal + utility.
Another option that I theorized was going Esper. This gives us a few utilities we don't have otherwise:Flash Targets:- Kokusho, the Evening Star- Ashen Rider
Utility:- gravepact and Dictate of Erebos as well as more access to transmute, which could be relevant.
Anyway, I appreciate any suggestions or comments!
Also: feel free to suggest any card, but I might only add to "Other Options" since I'll try to keep the deck updated to what I'm currently running (although I think I convinced myself on 2 Eternal Witness + 1 Cataclysm > 2 Mnemonic Wall + 1 Supreme Verdict; also maybe Krosan Grip; will update as I playtest/change stuff around).
Thanks for checking the deck out!
