A day before game day, I decided to cut red entirely in favor of blue, and I ended up going 2-1 and placing fifth before I had to leave early. All in all, not bad.
For consistency, I decided I wanted to have a third color that I would only have to splash. Red had things like Glorybringer that were great low-costing things, but often I did not have the double red or even one red to cast it with. Dropping red also means no Harnessed Lightning, but the card advantage generated by Rogue Refiner (who, by the way, was the main reason for the splash) balanced that out. I also have one Censor in the mainboard for control matchups, but I never drew it once in the 8 games I played, so I don't know how it will play in the future.
Other non-blue decisions involved adding 1 Demon of Dark Schemes to both the main and side board. He did fairly well when I drew him, but unfortunately none of my games were so close that he was needed to put me ahead. I did trade for an Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger after the tournament, which means I only need 2-3 more for the deck to be at its full capability. I think my final numbers will be 3 of him and 2 Aetherwind Basker simply because there is nothing quite as awesome as swinging for 27/27 trample on turn 5 or 6.
First matchup was this BW lifegain home brew, which I beat 2-0 with Aetherwind Basker and later a World Breaker targeting his only swamp.
Second round was another janky homebrew, UG ramp, but he got the games with none other than Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger. Game one he was slow enough that I got marvel out and started generating threats, but once he got the titan out, it only took two hits from him to draw me out. Game two I might have pulled it off, only because I drew a consfication coup and would've got his Ulamog if he hadn't had another one in hand. 0-2
Round three was against a bant walkers control build, but I guess the guy didn't draw too well and I beat him 2-0. Both games he had some threats and answers, but he left an Aetherwind Basker unchecked in both games and I was able to finish him off even without Aetherworks Marvel (which fell victim in the second match to a cast out)
I thought about making the deck temur instead of sultai, similar to the protour versions, but in the end I realized two things: I wouldn't really benefit from red without the money for 2-3 Chandra, Torch of Defiance, and Winding Constrictor is a super key piece of the deck in its current form, easily worth running black for.
I will keep taking this to future fnms and game days, and making edits as necessary. If you have a idea, let me know down below!
Thanks for looking!!
