Yeah, Temporal Mastery is a really iffy card right now. Just doesn't sync up the way I hope it would. It does activate Delver, but it's usually a dead card if in my opening hand, I can never cast it with Past in Flames if I discarded it with Faithless Looting , and once I do cast it it doesn't buff card:Runechanter's Pike, and it never gets pulled for two turns of swinging. I'm keeping it for now, but it's really likely to leave if it doesn't pull it's weight soon. Two spots is too valuable in this deck.
I'd love another card:Sphinx's Revelation, but I've only got the one right now.
I've thought about a 4th Delver of Secrets Flip to increase the chances of applying early pressure, but not sure what to take out... So far I'm not too scared of not drawing a creature. Further play-testing revealed a few things:
-Faithless Looting is a problem solver for a bad opening hand, and with Think Twice , the two allow me to dig for cards quite well. Searching for answers!
-The one Past in Flames won me a game as I ditched it early with a Faithless Looting , had card:Runechanter's Pike get a buff from it, and then flashbacked it with two damage dealers for the win. Muwahahaha!
-I think the 3rd Bonfire of the Damned needs to be mainboarded. For pure aggro decks, either early or midrange, I need more answers to stop them from overwhelming me.
The other thing I'm really debating is to up the card count and add more draw mechanics. With more cards, I can add more answers and use the draw mechanics to dig for them. But I'm really trying to find this crazy balance at the 60 card limit.
December 21, 2012 12:30 p.m.
Don't go past 60 cards, you want to be paired down and efficient. You also don't want to spend too much mana drawing, while you should be casting other spells. It just fucks with the tempo too much imo. I'd say pull the Temporal Mastery , unless its two headed giant, and put in the other Delver of Secrets Flip and Bonfire of the Damned . Or get another card:Sphinx's Revelation and put that in instead of the bonfire.
I also don't like Faithless Looting , sure it can fix a bad draw, but ideally a deck should be setup so that it doesn't have a bad draw. Or at least that's my approach. It can be used like you mentioned, to place cards that proc card:Runechanter's Pike in the graveyard, but still.... Up-ing the creature count and getting rid of "dead" cards such as Temporal Mastery would help avoid bad draws?
December 21, 2012 2:56 p.m.
Haha, I too didn't understand Faithless Looting at first. But once I played with it, I realized it helped every game. Everyone gets a bad draw or a card or two that is not good enough for the scenario: not enough land, too much land, wrong land types, having only late game cards in an opening hand, etc. If that bad hand has a Looting in it, the hand is probably fixed. If you get to a late game scenario and you draw two land in a row without any other cards in hand, boom, flashback Looting and you get two new cards, and even if they're both land, you've purged your top deck of dead cards faster. If you need a specific answer to the scenario, Looting gets you there quicker. It is a very good card for a deck that avoids having an army. That's why the Temporal Mastery probably needs to go. It helps me, but is not an answer for anything on their side of the board.
December 21, 2012 5:35 p.m.
Word. Makes sense. Late game action sounds pretty good. But I still don't like the idea of "hand fixing" early on. Lots of drawing mechanic in the deck and I think you should try to set it up to have a solid draw more often, so that you don't need the "hand fixing".
What does testing show? Was this the setup you took to the tournament?
December 21, 2012 6:05 p.m.
Just traded for an Entreat the Angels , but honestly I think it will have to stay out until the R/W shock land is playable. Either that, or I toss out some of the colorless mana generators such as Hellion Crucible or card:Slayers' Stronghold, but I've found both to be helpful. More helpful than Entreat? As long as it's only one Entreat, I'm guessing yes.
But many angels may be my answer for mid-range aggro. I see all your creatures with many angels, muwahahaha!
January 2, 2013 5:31 p.m.
Do you actually use the Hellion Crucible ? How? Seems like a hella shitty unused mana outlet... What about upping the count of Glacial Fortress to get the extra white mana you'll want?
January 2, 2013 6:59 p.m.
I've used Hellion Crucible twice in very effective ways. This deck passes the turn with unused mana quite a bit. Having the flexibility to funnel some of it into the Crucible is just another option that has given me a very opportune 4/4 at times. Like, after I board wipe with Terminus or need one more creature to push the attack.
I could go with a few more Glacial Fortress s, but that puts me at only 12 red sources, and only four of those are available on the first turn. :( I think I'm going to wait unless another change pushes me towards more white. Divine Deflection may be a reason to switch over... I've seen some good uses of that.
January 3, 2013 12:37 p.m.
Word. I was suggesting that Hellion Crucible goes for more Glacial Fortress . Angel win condition, versus land mana outlet... Divine Deflection is pretty cool too. Most of these "american" decks I've seen online have Entreat the Angels , probably because it really is that amazing.
January 3, 2013 3:36 p.m.
It would be pretty amazing to pull of a 3rd turn 4/4 angel after Electromancer drops second turn. I guess Entreat > Hellion... and it would fix the small mana issues that occur. I'll mull it over. Good suggestion.
January 3, 2013 6:10 p.m.
Burning Oil ... Just saw this card, thought it might have potential here. Cheers.
January 4, 2013 4:03 p.m.
Agreed, I think it makes a lot of sense in this deck. That and card:Devil's Play. Both are better burn than Brimstone Volley in this deck, and better than Pillar of Flame as long as I'm not playing zombies or undying.
January 4, 2013 6:48 p.m.
Ghost Quarter ... someone pointed out that Tamiyo and ghost quarter can be used together to destroy all non-basic lands... Could be pretty useful?
January 9, 2013 1:39 p.m.
Interesting thought. I removed Hellion Crucible for Glacial Fortress and added another card:Slayers' Stronghold, which won me a game, so that's cool. I think I'm sticking with the Stronghold because anytime I ultimate Tamiyo, the game is pretty much over and I don't like sacrificing my lands otherwise.
I'll be updating this again shortly with results from last night and some changes I will make immediately.
Raxin says... #1
You and your Temporal Mastery and Past in Flames . You are seriously the only one I see using those cards right now, because you have the "Fife luck".
Only 10 creatures? Not great odds there. You may have issues like Shawn does, not having a creature when its needed. But then again, not having a creature means you have more of everything else, so that may be ok?
Only one card:Sphinx's Revelation? I just feel like the revelation is an awesome card for this deck.
You may want to consider Annihilating Fire for the sideboard for it's graveyard exiling capabilities.
Everything really makes alot of sense, even your Temporal Mastery . But it seems like fast tempo decks are definitely gonna be an issue. And consistency may also be an issue.
December 20, 2012 9:52 p.m.