Ordeal of Thassa?

Thank you for your suggestion.

The problem with Ordeal of Thassa is that it sets you down 1 card if the opponent immediately responds with removal, because it doesn't immediately replace itself. You creature needs to be able to successfully attack three times for the draw effect to work, which won't happen often. Far more often, your creature ends up dying to removal, which is why Fate Foretold is somewhat superior.

I will put Ordeal of Thassa on the maybeboard for now unless you can convince me that it has a better spot in the deck than the aura/instants that are currently in.

i just figured it'd be an almost instant activation with chasm stalker

I see what you mean now. Actually that's pretty clever! Still, I think there's a minor problem there: the card is incredible on Chasm Skulker and decent on heroic creatures, but not too good on stuff like Sigiled Starfish and Dakra Mystic. Let's assume you don't immediately start with your heroic creatures or the skulker in your hand. Then this card becomes sort of a dead card until you draw the right creature.

I will try including it and test it out at FNM for a few games. If it works out, I'll keep it in the deck.

Thanks again for your suggestion.

Alright, I moved Ordeal of Thassa to the sideboard and consolidated it a bit.

Yusss

Shorecrasher Elemental every day of the week.

I'll think about Shorecrasher Elemental. I'm on the fence here because:

• His pricetag isn't very cheap, so he would bump up the price of the deck considerably.
• He doesn't really contribute to the draw mechanic of the deck much.
• You can't enchant him with Fate Foretold because you would lock out his blink ability.

However:

• He does have synergy with Profaner of the Dead.
• He gives you something to do with excess mana, especially later on.
• He does present an alternate win-con which the deck could really use.

I will maybeboard him for now. Thanks for the suggestion!

This is a brutal deck from the looks of it. The only card I'm on the fence about is Sigiled Starfish. Perhaps you could replace it with Dissolve or Thassa's Rebuff.

Hmmm...I really like the idea of Dissolve in the deck, but I'm not sure if I should replace a creature with Dissolve since there's a creature/spell balance that would be thrown off a bit. I'm worried that taking away creatures, especially 2-drops like Sigiled Starfish, would increase the odds of having a dead hand or a wasted turn 2.

Perhaps you can help me out by explaining what you don't like about Sigiled Starfish? The way I'm looking at it, he seems to fit well in the deck, particularly with all the untap mechanics and his 3 health, which is an attractive target for Profaner of the Dead when you don't have a Chasm Skulker in play. Also, he gives the ability to control the top of your deck before drawing.

Sigiled Starfish seems to just have very limited uses. Scrying over and over can be good, but if you really wanted to do that, albeit it not budget, Thassa, God of the Sea could work. The rest of your cards seem to have very interesting abilities, but just scrying seems less game-ending than those. Sidisi's Faithful comes out sooner, blocks more hardcore, although has a less useful one shot effect. Coral Barrier comes out one turn later, blocks better, and gives you offensive capabilities as well. If you're really set on the scryfish, keep him, at least I got my opinion in.

Yea, ideally I would want Thassa in the deck but alas, it's a budget deck. Sidisi's Faithful and Coral Barrier are both interesting and useful suggestions, but you'll notice a lot of the cards I'm using like Refocus and Triton Tactics would not have as much use on those cards as on scryfish, so I'd have to change those cards as well. I'm not dead-set on keeping Sigiled Starfish in the deck, but it just seems like a better option than those creatures.

Dissolve might actually be a solid replacement though, because we could use a little more control. I'll test it offline and, if it doesn't throw off the deck's curve, I'll use it.

So I put in Dissolve, but as a replacement for Refocus rather than for Sigiled Starfish. The creature balance is maintained this way, and we have more options to deal with removal or nasty creatures.

Replaced Dissolve with Negate as we are more concerned with early removal and need a faster counterspell.

+1 from me because I just love chasm skulker and want him to be competitive so bad lol. But I really like the deck you have here, I'd totally play with it

Thanks! This deck is more of a fun idea for a casual setting, but it can compete quite well with most creature-heavy decks.

I just thought of a half decent removal card. Reality Shift the 2/2 is a downside but this is the best mono blue removal in standard. And sometimes you can mana screw your opponent which is always fun. I know you want a budget deck but if you decide to make this deck more competitive then Thassa is a must.

Reality Shift sounds good! What would you take out for it?

You're more than welcome to run Thassa in this deck (make it your own!) As the description states, this is a for-fun budget deck, so I don't intend to introduce any mythics/Gods.

Sigiled Srcyfish vs. Monastery Siege?

Yep! I've been back and forth between these two. Sigiled Starfish worked out quite well, but I want to see if Monastery Siege is any better, since draw is strictly better than scry in this deck.

Decided on Sage of Hours, since it gives us something else to pump, synergizes with Profaner of the Dead, and gives us an alternate win-con.

Solid budget deck is just my thing, so +1 for you!!

The enemy-color-hate cycle from the DTK is good, so maybe a 2-3 of Encase in Ice for side?

Also what comes to mind whenever I see mono-blue:

• Triton Shorestalker + Gudul Lurker + Military Intelligence/Bident of Thassa for drawfest. Squid tokens also works with Military Intelligence

Cool ideas! I sideboarded Encase in Ice. Where would you put in the other cards you mentioned? What would you replace?