Cards I've tried that I like
The best dual land that produces are main colours. I've dropped it, now that we run 4x Vault of Whispers and don't run Land Grant any more. Good card that I might run again, but the deck would require a different configuration.
It's my pet card that I've tried running for a long time in the deck. It allows for low-storm count wins, but when I ciritcally reviewed the card, I realised that it was too situational and that Empty the Warrens was a similar, but easier to cast card. I'll probably try her again in the future, but we'll see if she makes the main deck again.
I have swapped this card in and out of the deck a few times now. It never feels powerful enough to truly warrant a spot in the deck, but having it in the deck can be ever so useful. It's basically a creature version of Lotus Petal and it's primary use is as an initial black mana source by casting it with an Elvish Spirit Guide. The main reason for dropping it is that it's use as a primary mana source is very all in line. You have to win that turn, or you lose. Having said that, it's the card I most often look back to potentially bringing back in to the deck.
The card used to be a good storm extender years ago, but has fallen out of favour in established storm decks such as ANT or TES. I like the card and it used to be part of my list for years. But I too saw that it wasn't pulling it's weight enough. It can be a life saver when you need to extend your storm count, but nowadays you can quite easily chain Beseech the Mirrors into each other to increase the storm count. Ill-Gotten Gains feels a bit more like a win-more card, rather than a vital combe extender. The fact that it forces your opponents hand size to 3 can be very powerful, but ultimately I don't think it's quite good enough.
Free green creatures have been a part of the deck for a very long time. I played each of these creatures at different times in deck, but since the printing of Grief, I felt that the deck had enough free creatures to support Culling the Weak. If you're running Burnt Offering as well, I might see a reason for trying them again, but it would likely also require running more green cards. When the deck was still part Belcher, you could often pitch a Land Grant you didn't need any longer, but since the introduction of Beseech the Mirror, we don't run a lot of green cards, likely making these free green creatures a liability nowadays.
In the past I used to run Skullwinder to be able to Summoner's Pact to get a card from the graveyard back to my hand. I didn't use the card that often and because it can benefit the opponent as well, I ended up cutting it. Instead, I tried Colossal Skyturtle because 1) it's more flexible: you can bounce a creature with it and 2) it's harder to interact with: opponents can't usually counter Channel abilities. An added bonus is that it doesn't give the opponent a card back and it can help cast Echo of Eons by exiling it under a Chrome Mox. The downside is that you can't use it with Culling the Weak and that it doesn't contribute to the storm count. I tested it and it was never amazing, it was simply too situational. Drawing it mid-combo felt god-awful, but pacting for was just the best. In the end, I didn't pact for it enough to justify all the times I'd draw it instead. It's not an unplayable card, it has a role, it's just not in the shell I'm playing right now.
A card that I ran for quite a while. It's potential draw 7 effect is not something to be underestimated. However, the fact that it's Blue, cannot be tutored for and requires 4 mana are all significant drawbacks. For me, the printing of Blex, Vexing Pest
made the inclusion questionable. A deck list that has more cards that fix mana such as Manamorphose and Wild Cantor might support it's inclusion more, but even when I ran those cards, Slithermuse was still often difficult to cast. The draw effect is really, really powerful, but the fact that you have to jump through so many hoops to cast it and the fact that Echo of Eons is arguably easier to cast and more powerful version of this card means that I don't think I can really recommend running the card any longer.
An extremely powerful effect for potentially just 3 mana! I was sceptical at first when trying the card, but came to appreciate the raw power of the card. I eventually ran it for a while, but with the printing of Beseech the Mirror I've been off the card. It's not that the card isn't powerful enough, it certainly is, it's rather that it's difficult to reliably get it into the graveyard. The only cards that allow you to do so are Blex, Vexing Pest
and Lion's Eye Diamond. It's powerful enough that if the right new card gets printed I'll try it again, but for the moment I don't think it's reliably active enough to warrent it's inclusion in the 60.
Cards I've tried that I don't like
I tried this out for it's cycling ability, to get a card deeper in the deck. It was underwhelming at best when drawing it naturally, but pacting for the cycle (desperate times) straight up felt awful. I'm pretty sure the printing of Blex, Vexing Pest
replaces the card definitely.
Manamorphose has been in and out of the deck a few times now, but I'm pretty sure I'm not going to put in the deck back again. It's main usage is turning floating green mana into black mana. The fact that it draws a card is quite nice but, you can't rely on the Manamorphose if you need to hit (a) specific card(s). Deadshot Minotaur taught me that drawing a single card really isn't that powerful. Combined with the fact that I've been trying to reduce the amount I rely on green mana, mean that mana fixing has become less and less necessary. Therefor I dropped Manamorphose from the deck. I can see it warranting it's inclusion in the deck if access to green mana becomes more important. It's okay, but it never impresses.
Cards I've considered
Song of Creation can be very powerful, because of the amount of free spells that The Spanish Inquisition runs. Having only 1 or 2 cards in hand can lead to a kill. The main issue is it's anti-synergy with Summoner's Pact and the fact that after resolving a Beseech the Mirror you are often left with very few cards in hand, meaning that you likely need to pass the turn. Coupled with the fact that many of the cards require other cards (Grief, Culling the Weak, Infernal Tutor...), I decide not to run it. Though decks like The Epic Storm have shown how powerful it can be.
It costs more than Infernal Tutor, but you can cast it and tutor for a card at any given time. It also is an artifact in case we're trying to run Mox Opal. I'm considering running a single copy to see if I like it or not. I'm skeptical that it'll replace Infernal Tutor as has been done in other legacy decks as the difference between 2 and 3 mana is quite a lot. We may run many ritual spells, but we never really have a lot of mana floating around.
Grabbing a land from the deck for a single green is attractive, but Land Grant does this for free. Sure, revealing your hand is quite the drawback, but the difference between 1 and 0 mana is huge. Also drawing a single random card is really not that good, as I noticed in my testing of Deadshot Minotaur.
Even though Chatterstorm is storm card, it's just not quite good enough. I tested it hoping that generating 7-8 squirrel tokens might be just good enough or give us enough time to go off once again, but more importantly I thought the tokens from Chatterstorm would be nice fodder for Culling the Weak or Ravenous Squirrel. In reality, however, from my limited testing it hardly ever came up. The creatures we can get through Summoner's Pact are usually enough as Culling the Weak fodder. I've briefly tried a build using Carnival of Souls in the hope of generating lots of mana. But this too proved unsuccessful. Carnival of Souls costs too much life, which we often don't have a lot of. Not only that, a Carnival of Souls without Chatterstorm is just plain bad, incentivising multiple copies, but these cards aren't powerful enough on their own. Lastly, if you have 4 mana lying around to cast Carnival of Souls and Chatterstorm, you can probably be doing better things.
Perhaps a different Spanish Inquisition deck, one which focuses on using 0 mana value creatures such as Shield Sphere and Crimson Kobolds might prove a better home, though I'm not convinced.
1 mana for 2 bodies is quite attractive as we're playing 4 Culling the Weaks. I feel it's a nice option to have as part of the Summoner's Pact targets, but lately have found fodder creatures not be a big issue, with the inclusion of Griefs to the deck.
Another black ritual spell, but this one doesn't make the cut. We don't nearly get enough creatures in the graveyard to reliable get a Dark Ritual effect for Songs of the Damned, even with the extra creatures I run to support Burnt Offering.
Other powerful draw spells in black. Pain's Reward is easier to cast and also draws four cards, but giving your opponent a choice is often not what you want to be doing, when you depend so heavily on the effect resolving. As long as your opponent bids more life, they get the draw effect and you fizzle.
Peer into the Abyss is by far the strongest draw card in black (other than Ad Nauseam, which we can't run), but requires a steep investment of 7 mana. Perhaps one day the card will be somewhat playable, but right now 7 mana is just often too much. Whilst casting and activating Goblin Charbelcher also equals 7 mana, it can be done over 2 turns.
Demonic Lore is by far the most playable card of the three listed here. It's easier to cast and doesn't cost any immediate life, but draws only 3 cards. Up until the release of Blex, Vexing Pest
, I think it would be a reasonable inclusion to the deck as the 9th draw spell, but I don't see any reason to run this over Blex.
A fifth tutor spell. I haven't found the card to be that reliable as getting up to 5 mana can be a pain and getting 3 mana back is nice, but often not quite enough to reliably go off. Grabbing a draw-4 with Dark Petition leaves you with no mana floating, meaning that you need to draw a starting mana source in addition to drawing gas to continue going off. I don't recommend it.
I really would like the card to work, but realise that it has many things going against it. Getting to 6 mana is a tall ask and the fact that you then still need cards in order to go off, which isn't guaranteed by the way, renders the card unplayable. But oh, how I wish the card was playable...