Going to consider this deck somewhat complete.
Overall goal is to play similar to a TurboFog with a different win condition. Give opponent creatures, ignore combat damage, use the creature ETB or their existence in general against the opponent.
The deck has a lot of weaknesses but its still pretty alright.
Win conditions (in order of preference):
Enablers (in order of impact):
- Howling Mine: Must have, doesnt matter how many cards they draw or how many answers they get we need to draw our fog effects or we lose outright.
- Dictate of Kruphix: see above, added benefit of flash which plays well with the rest of our instants, lets us double draw first.
- Fevered Visions: can get pretty good, draw is end of turn, but a lot of times we're looking to just dig for a fog effect anyways. Damage also can help if the game is running longer
- Fog Effects: a bunch of different effects that stop combat and heal you or damage your opponent, the only thing that gives us a chance to sit around and do nothing but give our opponent stuff
Interactions:
- Negate: Can only be used to stop a planeswalker from being cast or to protect a game winning rakdos charm, or a game losing spell from the opponent
- Teferi, Hero of Dominaria: Minus 3 is our only way to manage an already landed planeswalker.. The plus one is perfect as the majority of our gameplan is under 2 mana
- Rakdos Charm: Can/should be used against a "Chalice of the void on 1" so that we dont just lose, teferi/negate is the only way to stop Chalice on 2
Lands:
- Forbidden Orchard: adds to our overall gameplan perfectly
- Shocks/basics/fetches: just added what seemed correct
Things to note:
- Use the correct fog. Darkness is combat damage only. Ethereal Haze can be used to stop ANY creature damage like Omnath, Locus of Creation's 3rd land drop effect. Also keep your mana efficient. If nothing else matters, play a 3 mana fog over a 1 mana fog unless you have something else to do with that mana.
- Draw the cards. Whatever you can do to draw cards and get that set up early is important.
- Land drops. If you draw enough cards, you will hit your land drops. Don't be afraid to pay for shock lands, you're likely going to be safer than you think due to fog effects and triggered life gain.
Mulligans:
You have to keep at least a 2 lander which means you'll be mulliganing a decent amount probably around 25% of the time. A 2 lander with a howling mine is great. And should be your main goal. Even a 3 lander with no draw can be worth dumping. The issue is that the deck is not a 'fair' deck. We cant just curve out a Hunted Phantasm and expect to win. You have to get a draw engine going, fill their board, and then execute on a win strategy. The key to the deck is drawing cards, if you can draw enough cards, you can probably win.
Hunted Phantasm is not a turn 3 play unless you have a very specific idea of what your opponent is doing and you're on the play. An example of a reasonable line would be:
- Forbidden Orchard
- Forbidden Orchard + Trespasser's Curse
- Forbidden Orchard + Hunted Phantasm
- End of opponents turn Darkness + Dictate of Kruphix
This sets up a very aggressive Rakdos Charm if you can dig for it. Also swinging for 4 on turn 4 with the unblockable, plus the 8 triggers from Tresspasser's Curse is pretty much a must answer. This line does get crushed by a counter on the Phantasm, or the Kruphix, etc etc. We dont want to take this line unless we are confident we have the ability to continue after getting the curse removed or whatever.
Sideboard:
- Pithing Needle: sideboard in to combat planeswalkers, our main solution to Lilianas, teferi's etc. (quick note that Teferi, Time Raveler's passive ability absolutely hoses our ability to even play the game)
- Leyline of Sanctity: sideboard in to help against burn-like effects or to better manage Thoughtseizes or other issues
- Abrupt Decay: A hacky way to try to manage Liliana of the Veil or Teferi, Time Raveler or Wren and Six uses green mana so hopefully you draw an orchard :)
- Swan Song: a 1 mana counterspell to counter counterspells. Really solid play against control to ensure that when you need to make a move, you have 1 blue mana left to song away anything. Also good to counter hard to manage enchantment gods or other annoying things. This sideboard option makes it easier to hold your Negate while still interacting with a control player's attempts to ruin a play.
Weaknesses:
Lots.
The primary issue is that by building an opponents board for them, you give yourself an extremely tight clock. If you ever fail to draw a fog effect, you'll be in a tough spot. A solid counter can send you down a spiral. A good thing to keep in mind is that you are always at risk of being countered. Holding 2 fog effects in hand and being ready to cast 2 in one turn is a good way to mitigate some of this risk. Solid control decks are the bane of your existence. They can even clear their own board to protect against your win conditions. Removal of your draw engines is also detrimental. Generally people like to see howling mine as it enables them to draw a bunch as well, fun! But if they know better, they'll just remove your draw engines and let you fizzle out.
Pretty sure BloodMoon is an instant win for the opponent. The deck doesn't have enough room to fit enough a ton of basic lands, which means you end up with a ton of dead cards. This is somewhat resolved by replacing the the former City of Brass with basics but the double casting costs of Dictate of Kruphix and Hunted Phantasm can still be difficult. If you know a moon is coming, fetch whatever pays for the fog in your hand, then fetch blue. The main defense here is prioritizing howling mine and getting your drawing going. If you can draw into your basics, you still have a chance.
