Argeaux,
Yeah, I thought about that too (I'm surprised you didn't hear my maniacal laugh)! Between that and me getting smarter about redirecting damage to Planeswalkers (I had an Exquisite Firecraft in hand and didn't use it ... aargh!), Gideon is looking much less scary now.

bretters,
Thanks, but that's not the right place for the card. Eldrazi Obligator seems like a great 5-drop (uncounterable Treason effect + maybe a dude on the table too), but it's a terrible 3-drop (3 for a 3/1 with no abilities? Blurgh). So probably 95% of the time, I'd be casting it as a 5-drop. There's nothing in the 4- or 5-drop slots I'd give up for an Obligator on Game 1, but against opponents who can run Enchantment hate, I think it makes sense to pull the Thopter Spy Networks for Game 2 and swap in the Obligators. I'm not sure yet how to get it onto the sideboard, but since it answers the same kind of powerful threats as Roast / Tears of Valakut, that's probably where it'll go for starters. Hopefully that make sense!

Thanks again!

Ah true about it kinda doing the same thing as roast/tears except roast can take out a turn 2 advocate.

bretters,
Yeah, that's a perfect example for thinking about the trade-off ... do I want burn early to avoid a pumped-up Sylvan Advocate or Treason late to punch with my own Wandering Fumarole? I frankly have no idea at this point, but I'm looking forward to sorting it out on a table soon!

What I actually see is that you don't have quite that many instants / sorcerers to trigger spell mastery for fiery impulse at least very early. I think 3 damage is a key number if you wanna burn the important lower costed creatures. Maybe roast mb over impulse and then obligator in the side ?

bretters,
No, I'm good with Fiery Impulse on the mainboard. My current collection of 1- and 2- drops (counting Hangarback Walker as a 2-drop) is working great so far. Thanks though!

I would advise you against removing Thopter Spy Network for game 2.

That's what I used to do at first, then later it became apparent that I was removing draw and the possibility of going wide, both strengths of the deck.

It might be worthwhile to take out your Thopter Engineer for three more Whirler Rogue. All of your artifacts are thopters or your hangarbacks. While giving them haste is nice, I think having more of them and being able to make something unblockable is better. The two thopters that come out with it can be tapped for its ability on the same turn it's played. Don't exactly remember why, but the judges say it's a valid play.

I also recommend Chief of the Foundry or Ruination Guide to give your creatures a boost.

+1 !

Argeaux,
That's good advice (as always!) on the Thopter Spy Network, and I frankly don't have enough data yet to decide on the pull. But if this weekend is anything like last, between Dromoka's Command and Felidar Cub I'm not going to get get any value from the Network in Game 2 against anyone running White. If that's the case, I plan to sideboard it out quickly for something else, letting folks waste slots on Enchantment removal for Enchantments that aren't there :-)

Thanks tons!

rofl_im_jonny,
Thanks for dropping by, I really appreciate your thoughts!

Yeah I was totally expecting Unblockable to be a Big Deal at FNM last week, and it ended up being pretty much useless. I wouldn't mind more Whirler Rogues at all, but I'm already heavier than I wish in the 4-drops, plus the Haste effect gives the deck an Aggro feel that I really like.

I'm sure I'll re-look at the Chief and Ruination Guide after rotation, but for now Ghostfire Blade is doing fine for pump effects. If I had room for another 3-drop, it'd probably be Artificer's Epiphany on the mainboard. Or maybe Herald of Kozilek.

Thanks also for the +1; really appreciate the support!

rofl_im_jonny,
By the way, Summoning sickness is described in Rule 302.6: A creature can't attack nor use an "activated ability with the tap symbol or the untap symbol" unless it's "has been under its controllers control continuously since his or her most recent turn began."

Since tapping an artifact for Unblockable is neither of those, Summoning Sickness doesn't apply.

Another (often better) option for your Mono Blue deck is tapping a Ghostfire Blade or sometimes maybe Hedron Archive ... I hadn't realized that worked too, until Argeaux pointed it out to me.

It's sneaky.

We like sneaky.

True that!

Sweet deck, I couldn't have made a better thopter deck. I just made a Lorwyn Elemental deck if you want to check it out and maybe give me some advice.

Wonderwafl,
Thanks and I'll give a look sometime ... though I don't know anything about Lorwyn block Standard (just EDH) so I'm not sure it'll be much use :-)

You should add in more Whirler Rogue and Vile Aggregate. Whirler Rogue is just awesome and Vile Aggregate works very well with thopters.

PlanesWalker_Mason,
I agree that Whirler Rogue is awesome, but I actually like Pia and Kiran Nalaar better (sac' outlet > Unblockable). So if I had one more 4-drop slot, I'd run Ma and Pa. But yeah, if I had four more 4-drop slots, I'd totally run Ma and Pa as a three-of and Whirler Rogue as a four-of. Unfortunately, the deck is already more top-heavy than I like. Maybe on the sideboard though (against slow decks), if Eldrazi Obligator doesn't perform as well as I'm hoping ...

While Vile Aggregate is a great card for many decks, it's not a particularly good fit for this one. If I'm behind it's just a wall (which is nice for a lot of decks, just not this one), and if I'm ahead I don't need it. I just can't see swapping any of my existing 3-drops for is.

Thanks tons though, I always appreciate the chance for a hard re-look!

I agree with your take on Vile Aggregate.

Not the best way to go for what this deck is trying to achieve.

I actually run a thopter deck that uses Mirror Mockery and Impact Tremors. Yea, I know, it just doesn't seem as fun killing someone one health at a time, but it can be effective once you start producing thopters. I also use Kolaghan Forerunners because you can dash him for more triggers from Impact Tremors. Otherwise, this thing looks nice!

I think this deck is conceptually cool and well executed. +1

I know U/R token decks are a lot of fun to pilot because I play a budget Izzet Tokens deck in Modern myself on occasion. If I may provide some constructive criticism:

A) You are only running six land cards that can pay Reality Smasher's colorless cost. I realize he's a capstone card, but the possibility of having five or six lands on the battlefield and still not being able to create him is not insignificant. My suggestion would be to remove two Swiftwater Cliffs and add in two more Ruins of Oran-Rief. Conveniently, this also fixes the problem that eight taplands is too many taplands.

B) You have a lot of 4-drop spells. On the other hand, your 4-drops are really good. I had this same problem with my U/R Tokens deck. In your case, I would recommend just removing the one Whirler Rogue.

Check out my Izzet deck if you have some spare time, and if you like it and appreciate the (hopefully helpful) suggestions I made for your deck, throw me a +1 :-)

Good luck with your future matchups, and keep up the deckbuilding!

PistonGolem,
Your deck sounds really fun, and thanks much for the compliments on this one!

I looked at Mirror Mockery early on, and LOVE the low CMC. But I found the "whenever enchanted creature attacks" condition to be just too tough, even when running more Unblockable effects.

I actually really enjoy the ping effects from Impact Tremors ... I fell in love with the card at a DTK 2HG event ("each opponent" = AWESOME) and it still holds a warm place in my heart. I looked at it for this deck early on, but just wasn't excited about giving up a 2-drop for something that can't affect the board for a while.

I've never looked at Kolaghan Forerunners, and it looks like it would be great with Impact Tremors ... in this deck though, I'm afraid it's kind of a strictly worse Vile Aggregate.

Thanks again!

Tethys,
Thanks so much for the kudos!

I've been very pleasently surprised how well the fixing works in this deck ... I seriously can't remember the last time I had either an issue with either Stormchaser Mage on turn 2 or Reality Smasher on turn 5. I know I'll be relooking the manabase next month when Swiftwater Cliffs rotates out, but until then I'm hopeful it'll just keep working!

And yeah you're TOTALLY right on the number of 4-drops. It worked really smooth with 7, but I'm just not sure about 8. If I need to drop it back, I'm fairly certain I'll be rolling Flameshadow Conjuring back to the meh-board and adding another Pia and Kiran Nalaar or maybe a Whirler Rogue. I'll let you know Saturday! :-)

I'l definitely give your deck a look.

Thanks again!

Thoughts about white to add Eldrazi Displacer i been looking at him to abuse ETB effects.

deltacobra,
I thought VERY seriously about it when I was first pulling the deck together, but decided not to. Mostly because it frankly seemed a bridge too far for my current deck-building skills, and partly because of the increased cost and post-rotation uncertainty of the manabase. I'm certain I'm going to relook both Jeskai and Azorius as options though, after we get the full SOI spoilers.

Sallymander's giving it a try though; you should totally check out his or her deck over at jeskai thropter overload!

Yea Im completely torn on what colors I wanna do after rotation I'm running abzan right now. But I def want to abuse the ETB with displacer but not sure if I wanna run GW or RWB or WB I'm thinking tri colors will be out cause of mana base. I like green but lacks the ETB effects.

You've got me to think about a deck I was starting to work on.

You can check it out, if you like.

Oh, the Humanity! [ OGW ]