Hey guys, sorry I've not been active in a few weeks. Just thought I should mention I'm sorta taking a break from Magic, sorry. Idk why, just not feeling it lately. I'll probably be back in around release time, since I usually go with some friends. I think that'll jump start my love of the game. I'll be sure to let you guys know when I'm active again. Cya! And I really love all the support I've gotten from you guys!

Ephiphany at the Drownyard looks like a good Dig replacement.

polydamas maybe, I'm still seriously hoping for something better though. I guess I'm going to wait for the rest of the set to spoil before I go making changes. I think I might add black back in, it's looking pretty good.

Anguished Unmaking and Sorin, Grim Nemesis are worth it alone for the black IMO. also gives you Grasp of Darkness and discard options as well.

Even though Esper is more powerful its consistency is wore than Azorius and their are a multitude of options in Shadows over Innastrad such as Thing in the Ice  ^Flip,Descend upon the Sinful,Declaration in Stone, Archangel Avacyn  ^Flip, and even cards such as Engulf the Shore and this worse "Dig Through Time" Epiphany at the Drownyard (though bit could have some upside in certain circumstances)

Aright, anybody who cares! I just threw this together as a model for post Innistrad, what do you guys think? I haven't really been playing much since OGW came out, so feel free to criticize me!

It looks pretty good, but why is Sphinx of the Final Word in here instead of Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet?

Control, essentially. Plus I already have the Sphinxes & don't want to spend that much on Kalitas haha.

yeah, he really shot up in price.

I am a huge fan of control! This deck seems really great. I don't know if this will be an actual problem (just a theory for right now) but your three drop slot has a lot of double color casting cost cards. Scatter to the Winds, Anguished Unmaking, Stasis Snare, and Void Shatter. I just have a feeling mana at turn three will not have all the colors that you need after rotation. Like I said, all theory. Let me know what you think.

That is a point. I think this is a really unique point in Standard right now with regards to land, since the main lands in standard rely heavily upon land type- the Shadows lands rely upon subtype, and the Battle lands rely upon supertype. So on one hand the Shadows lands work great with the Battle lands since they have 2 subtypes, but the Battle lands don't work so well with the Shadows land because they don't have the proper supertype!

It kind of sounds like an emotionally unstable relationship :p

Shadowy Celina feels she deeply loves the gruff battalion Brutus, but Brutus doesn't find Celina as satisfying as he finds Montaa, Mirra, Sylva, Insula, or Slettene (though some say Slettene is a bit plain). So Brutus tries to step back a bit to allow more room for the others, even though many call them basic. But when Brutus pulls away, Celina has more trouble finding what she needs!

This is exactly how I feel about the land base in this deck.

Note: TO does not recognize non english characters.

The first "Basic" name was supposed to be Montana, but with an enya instead of an N....

The Spanish word for mountain :p

Declaration in Stone Needs to make its way in here. Has proven bonkers in testing and from what I've seen in vs videos. To the Slaughter is also ridiculous.

Big ball of nope Here's what I'm considering playing if you want more ideas.

Declaration in Stone I'm not so sure about, it strikes me as being good in aggro but not so much in control, since it slows them down a bit but gives them a card, whereas Immolating Glare simply kills the thing. Granted exile is better than destroy, but declaration in stone still feels like an "aggressive" removal card since it would pave the way for an attack being sorcery speed.

To the slaughter, though. I don't ever expect to have delirium, but that doesn't make it bad. My first thought of course is against Control for planeswalkers, but Anguished Unmaking I feel is just better for that purpose. The next thought is Ramp with their big things. Yeah, occasionally there's a Jaddi Offshoot in the way, but whatever. I could sideboard it for Ramp & Control, but that's why Overwhelming Denial and Transgress the Mind are for. A third option would be to drop Horribly Awry altogether, and go +1 Void Shatter and +2 To the Slaughter, since I often side out Horribly Awry anyway, and To the Slaughter isn't bad against aggro. Plus, as a rule, I try to lean more on removal than counters, and +1 Void Shatter would still help me with my hard counter count.

In fact, I'm going to test that. So that's what the decklist is going to say, but it's still in the air.

Also, I just pulled a Westvale Abbey  ^Flip at the prerelease. I'm thinking of running it as a 1-of as an alternate wincon because, well, I can. I would probably drop a single plains for it, so it shouldn't hurt my mana base much. What do you think? Again, I'm going to test with it in, so it's on the list but still up in the air.

The thing about giving them a clue, the clue often trades in for something way worse than what you're cashing Declaration in on. The exile is great, and against token based strategies, they don't get clues out of it. It feels very much like a permanent Detention Sphere, even when they get a few clues out of it. At least what I've noticed in testing this format. Anguished Unmaking is bonkers, but the amount of life loss is relevant. I do a 2-2 split with Anguished Unmaking and To the Slaughter, and both never feel completely dead in my hand. Another option you could consider to try and get max value out of To the Slaughter is Dead Weight. Extremely great at stemming the bleeding against aggressive strategies.

Good thought, that would help become delirious, but I do not feel like that card is very good against anything that isn't a devoted aggro strategy (dare I say it's.....dead weight?). It would be a valid side board option, but my side is already pretty aggro devoted anyway, I don't expect aggro being a problem. True, losing three life is a pretty big downside though, but being targeted & having the words nonland permanent is also relevant. I am going to try like this, but the life loss might be too much in which case I might swap it out for maybe extra To the Slaughter or Stasis Snare.

True enough, Dead Weight is going to be good against mostly aggro decks, I'm just always expecting aggro the first few weeks after a set til everyone figures out the midrange strategies. Since you're not running Jace, have you considered running a lone Learn from the Past? It'll screw over any control matchup running Jace, and it can also give you more gas in the event you need it.

That's true, but I fee like it's a stretch. It's effectiveness against Jace is a thing, but that feels a bit too oddly specific, and I cannot rely on having it on hand when I need it against him. The prospect of anti-mill though, if it were more of a thing in my meta, Inverter of Truth has crossed my mind as an option for combating mill. I think that when it comes to facing Mill, Inverter is probably better, if just for the fact that he is a 6/6 flyer for 4 mana.

Then again, mill is one match up where Anguished Unmaking will pull serious weight, getting rid of tutelage against a matchup where damage isn't something one needs to worry about near as much.

Not necessarily just mill, but gas in general in grindier matchups. Say you go through all your counters in a control mirror, or that midrange matchup where they get rid of all your wincons. Not even sure if mill is going to be a thing, there's too much enchantment hate for tutelage imo. In a case like that, you'd still have a library, and if you're against someone running vryn's prodigy, it'll hit them pretty hard not having gas in their yard.

Just as an option. I don't run it myself, but I have the full set of Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  ^Flip because I had a feeling he was going to skyrocket after the first time I tested him and picked him up while he was under 20 bucks.

I like Engulf the Score for a sweep. It is great that it is an instant. I love the deck though, I think you did a good job integrating SOI. Could you look at my Esper Dragons deck that is a version of your old Esper dragons deck?

A Dance with Dragons

Alright, FNM update, I ended up using 2 of the Silkwraps from my sideboard in place of To the Slaughter because that card was in so much demand. Went 3-1.

Round 1: Mono Red Landfall Aggro- Win- 2-1.

Round 2: Gruul ramp- Win- 2-0.

Round 3: Mardu Goodstuff- Loss- 1-2

Round 4: Esper control- win- 2-0.

Actually, round four he forfeited because neither of us wanted to do it. Still, slip says 2-0 my favor.

I'm just curoious why westvale abbey is in this deck? You're gonna to have to be on turn 8 or 9 by the time you even get to activate it, and by then you're going to have lost the game, unless you luck out on 3 reality smashers in a row.

Well, it's a colorless source & it can vomit up a blocker in the late game if I'm out of removal with plenty of mana, which is surprisingly relevant. Pay 1 life to block a big guy without trample & buy time. The odds of flipping it are low, but the tokens make it worth it. I do not intend to ever flip it.

So, for token chumps. That's why. And colorless mana.