Battlefield Thaumaturge i think maybe should have stayed and have an Icy Blast in the side or Peel from Reality only needing one mana to cast either. and Military Intelligence is really awesome but would be better if you had more creatures, right now you have a 1/3 split between your cards so only one third off your cards can hit and you need two hitting + removal is a thing. love it tho. plus one from me!

I've been playing around with this deck some more and I agree that Thaumaturge is the way to go with it. It gives you some really explosive starts and completely unstoppable late game power with hour of need. Icy Blast as a one of has also been fantastic.

I've taken out a Military Intelligence to make space for the Icy Blast. Though I like Military Intelligence, we have too high a concentration of cards that don't actually do anything to effect the board and so I don't think losing one is that big a deal.

Bad match ups are Mardu Midrange and Jeskai Tokens. Thoughtsieze, Chained to the Rocks, Crackling Doom and Goblin Rabblemaster are all really bad news for this deck.

Jeskai Tokens isn't quite so bad because they tap out a lot to play instants and sorceries, and Stubborn Denial is very good here.

Is there a missing update to this list? Because I don't think 5 Icy Blast is legal.

I've updated the sideboard so it actually makes some sense, also deleted some of my comments that no longer apply to the deck.

This deck is great and I've recently been playing with it quite a bit!

Icy Blast is a great bomb finisher, and I find myself digging for it post-board and having it pull me out of some dire situations. Increasing the Icy Blast count will definitely help here, and it can even be an early tempo play against ramp. I've been running 1 Dig Through Time as the sole delve card with no enablers (considering moving Dakra Mystic to the main to replace Vortex Elemental; fetch lands for a splash to Thoughtseize Reclamation Sage?).

I don't find force away as useful (except maybe against heroic) and eliminating 1-drops to fit it hampers crowding the board before turning everything into sphinx-i for a big swing. It feels horrible forcing away a rabblemaster although maybe we're just conceding that matchup. To that end I like Reality Shift as a card that also works well with Thaumaturge (with the plan of flying over the manifest). I like 1 Reality Shift main and some number in the sideboard for on the draw.

To make room, I think we can shave Springleaf Drum and Illusory Angel. Gives away a little bit of explosiveness for better topdecks. This could be wrong as people learn to play around hour of need by trading aggressively (then force away becomes a better gambit). I also tend to side out Frost Walker quite readily although they are nice easy early ferocious.

Can you comment on your sideboarding plans?

I think Briber's Purse could be a good artifact to ensoul and helps against stormbreadth and the few other flyers that we want to swing through.
Also AEtherspouts in the sideboard seems like an good meta choice now with all of the devotion decks.

Thanks for this deck resource!

I'm glad someone else has been playing about with this deck, there's more testing to be done with this than I can realistically do myself so any feedback is good.

I'm actually quite happy with the new version of this deck, Force Away and Icy Blast as a play set are really good tempo plays and are quite flexible. Hour of Need isn't as good as it was since there are few actual targets for it without Vortex Elemental in the deck.

The bit I really like about Force Away is that it lets you draw a card whilst developing your board. This deck has some dead draws from mid to late game so there's no shortage of cards to dump for this ability.

I think if this deck needs a splash, black would be the way to go. Thoughtseize can take away an opponents only way to deal with an Ensouled Artifact or let you know what you need to play around, it would be a very useful addition to this deck.

If we cut Springleaf Drum and Illusory Angel the deck loses early game ramp, which is critical in a tempo deck and one of our best ferocious enablers. It also means the deck only has eight targets for Ensoul Artifact. I think cutting them would change the deck into something else, that makes more use of the hour of need combo.

The sideboard... clearly needs a lot of work and has been an afterthought whilst I'm still tweaking the maindeck.

Monastery Siege and Dig Through Time come in against decks that are trying to grind you out. This engine gives you the tools to fight mid to late game, and keeps your hands full of threats. I'm going to add M15 Jace to the sideboard as well as part of this engine that control decks will have trouble interacting with.

Omenspeaker comes in against token decks, replacing Frost Walker. It's a source of card selection, blocks token aggro well and is a good target for Hour of Need.

Polymorphous Rush and Curse of the Swine are also cards that might come in. AEtherspouts is pretty amazing, but competes with Icy Blast for the same role.

I think with Dragons of Takir on the horizen you should look into the new cards.Gudul Lurker would be a fun card and would make a card like Ghostfire Blade very good.

Ever consider Reality Shift? Seems like decent spot removal and is really funny against decks running Courser of Kruphix since you get to "choose" the manifest card. Most of your threats have evasion or can punch through a 2/2.

Dance of the Skywise from DTK would fit right in in this deck

This is ingenious I love the interactions, I'll definitely mess with this deck

Absolutely! I was thinking of using Dance of the Skywise with Jeskai Elder, it would let me swing into Siege Rhino, Courser or Caryatid and threaten to kill them outright.

I'm not sold on Reality Shift in this deck since it doesn't actually clear a blocker out of the way and between Force Away and Icy Blast it just doesn't compete very well in most situations.

Could you explain your side? What are you removing to side against what?

Just found this and am going to try it out. Is there an updated deck list? In your last update, you mentioned taking down Illusory Angel to 3, cutting Force Away and switching Frost Walker to Jeskai Elder. What did you add in the new available slots?

Hey, I'm waiting for Origins before I go back to this deck. I'll update it to the latest version I've played though.

Thanks I appreciate it. I was thinking of changing 8 of the Islands to 8 Island Fetches to help the draw out. Any thoughts?

The potential extra non-land card drawn every 10+ game rarely influences the game. Losing 2-3 life every game is going to be relevant a lot more often, especially against aggro strategies. I don't think it's worth the cost in life.

Cool. Thanks. Sideboard wise I was thinking Encase in Ice. What are your sideboard choices for?

I like that card especially since it has flash, but I think removal/disruption is already accounted for with force away/icy blast. The way this deck wins is by hitting with big creatures and just outracing people, sacrificing card advantage for tempo.

The sideboard needs to be looked at, but Omenspeaker comes in against fast red decks. Jace is good in the sideboard against control since if he resolves they struggle to deal with him and his ultimate is backbreaking.