in the side

Replacing what (you can move a sideboard card to main etc. too)? I have considered him, but he looks a lot better now that I'm looking at it again.

I'm thinking my best option right now is to move Engineered Explosives to the mainboard and cut either Spellskite or Gaddock Teeg. I'm just trying to figure out what matches Ruric Thar, the Unbowed would shine in, and trying to weigh him against what he'd be replacing. All I can think of are more control-ish matches, where he'd cost my opponent 6 life to remove. I think I'd rather fetch a hexproof creature at that point. I'm not quite sure if he brings enough to the table, would like to hear some opinions.

ruric would probably do well against decks like delver that use a lot of cantrips and little spells to function, as well as control-ish decks. but somethign like a U or U/R control list would need to take a lot of life to remove him.

@nbarry223

The Main Advantage of Vault of the Archangel us giving your Primeval Titan (or any creature) life-link that turn, which can result in a large enough life-gain to make any fast paced deck not squeak a victory. I will admit, it is not easy to ajust the mana-base to fit it.

Other suggestion, in response to the the sugestion the Manamorphose be moved to the sideboard. What about main boarding Crimson Wisps? It cantrips and can give haste to Primeval Titan if you casted him without Amulet of Vigor out.

So, hey, they banned Pod + Dig + Cruise.

I think that means the Gaddock Teeg can become a Spellskite again, but am not sure what other changes you'd make.

@Ealon

Lifelink isn't very relevant for the reasons you mentioned, I will often play Elderscale Wurm or Empyrial Archangel after transmuting into a pact if I am in that much of a bind. The Shadowmoor cantrips are an interesting idea I've never thought of before for this particular deck. I don't think paying red for haste is something that fits in here, but Aphotic Wisps looks kind of interesting, along with Cerulean Wisps for combat tricks. I don't think either does enough to justify inclusion at this point, but I am glad you pointed out something almost viable that I haven't thought of. I'll have to revisit cantrips and see if any of the effects do justify inclusion, thanks!

@GlistenerAgent

Thanks for the heads up, I'll check out the ban/unban list and see if any more updating needs to be done.

Squelch looks like an interesting option as far as cantrips go. I'll have to see just how useful it is, and if my deck can support it.

Dredge 6 is unbanned huh? I might have to re-add my grave hate superstar, Wheel of Sun and Moon. Time will tell.

The use of Glittering Wish is what really pushed me to edit my old amulet deck. It was the 2013 version that was basically amulet or nothing. I cited/linked this deck in the description.

For the Gaddock Teeg & Spellskite slot im running Wurmcoil Engine. It takes care of the life gaining issue without the need to adjust your mana base. Another option is Batterskull at cmc for when we fall just short of casting titan.

I'm not worried about life gain because I just prevent life loss basically. Loss of life cards do get through, but they aren't used all that much.

I prefer some early game stability for those slots to late game finishers.

I'll probably end up going back to two spellskites with the ban list update, if nothing else seems worth testing.

I'm actually thinking about cutting Gaddock Teeg and Spellskite in favor of another Tolaria West and moving Engineered Explosives to the main for a few more options.

Every time I talk about your deck with friends I get more interested by it. It look like you have a nice balance of combo and ways to not lose if the combo doesn't take off. I've enjoyed playing UG amulet bloom with Hive Mind but this looks like a deck you can settle into.

You didn't add it to your description, so I'd like to ask. How does your match up pre and post side boards look against some of the other tier decks (Jund, burn, tron, zoo, UWR Control, etc.)

Thinking about it, the Manamorphose fit the deck perfectly. It's rather color dependent with glimmering wish.

I'm interested in hearing why you don't have Bojuka Bog (or any graveyard hate) in the side board.

~Ealon

Scavenging Ooze is my gravehate, the single copy acts as 5 slots. I had Wheel of Sun and Moon as another gravehate card, but removed it in favor of another Chalice of the Void with the meta change (will probably go back in with the unbanning of Golgari Grave-Troll). I will probably end up re-adding it if I go through with moving Engineered Explosives to the mainboard. Bojuka Bog is just a bad form of hate for this deck. You can't play it reactively, which is the most powerful aspect of gravehate. Instant speed hate is much more powerful. Depending on the types of graveyard decks, I often have other forms of hate too, for example, Chalice of the Void against Living End. A lot of my grave hate can be hidden under Mosswort Bridge too, for that extra "sucks to be you" factor.

Junk/Jund and decks along those lines rely on targeted discard and removal for their attrition based wins. Unfortunately for them, Leyline of Sanctity and my hexproof/shroud creatures make that path to victory very difficult. I'd say game one is slightly in their favor, and games 2/3 are heavily in my favor.

Burn is about a coin toss game one, games 2/3 heavily in my favor after Leyline of Sanctity.

Tron is a pretty easy match all around. I have a few forms of land hate, and plenty of ways to find them.

Zoo is probably slightly in their favor game one, and in my favor games 2/3.

Control decks just crumble to this, I've only ever lost to a control deck once (that didn't have an infinite combo, Splinter Twin doesn't count). I am a blue player at heart though, so I can often foresee their plays and play around them, if that makes sense? Baiting out counters with less important spells, stacking triggers certain ways to force earlier reactions, etc.

I'd say that the most difficult matches for me are decks with infinite combos, or anything like that where they can play a card or two and just win. Infect and Splinter Twin are the worst match ups for the deck, which is why Spellskite was so pivotal. I haven't seen much of either though, so I've moved away from it. The "free" slots truly do depend on your meta, as does the sideboard. There's plenty of swaps and moving around of boards that can be done.

Never gonna not like a Glittering Wish deck, +1

Thanks.

I'm going to work on a meta-changes section, since more and more people seem to be making their own versions of this deck.

Hopefully, I can compile a fairly extensive list in a timely manner.

Why are you not playing Hive Mind, Summoner's Pact, Pact of Negation and Slaughter Pact yet? After summer bloom, you ramp to 6, that's a great win con imo.

I'm not for a few reasons. First of all, it depends on the Summer Bloom combo to pay for Hive Mind in a timely manner, and that won't always guarantee a win or even contribute to one, if I don't have the appropriate pact. Second of all, Hive Mind is very vulnerable to counterspells, since I cannot make it uncounterable with any lands. Lastly, I just don't like it. It's too reliant on other things to be what I consider a "good" addition. If I were to play something that reliant, I'd definitely go with Waves of Aggression and rely on one of my eight copies of Primeval Titan.

That's why hive mind versions play 3 or 4 Tolaria West, they can fetch the relevant pact. So in this case, Hive Mind doesn't need to be "timely" to win. Against blue deck, true, you do want to be more careful, so try and have a Pact of Negation up and another pact if possible. If you don't have another pact, just wait to draw one, plus I play 4 Serum Visions in my list (since the deck does rely on having combo pieces somewhat). So overall, if you play the right cards, Hive Mind is a great win con. It's also more reliable than Waves of Aggression because that relies on you having a Primeval Titan that's not dead.

I'm with nbarry223 on this one. The Hive Mind amulet deck is more combo centered. It works when it works but if summer bloom never comes up or if you never get to a Hive Mind or Primeval Titian by turn 3 you're toast.

Thrun, the Last Troll is a more reliable win-con

Perhaps reliable is the wrong word.. versatile win con.

Over all, the UG bloom deck has 1.5 paths to victory. This deck is more about having options to interact with the opponent.

Yeah, pretty much. I'd have to change the whole deck to support Hive Mind, which I'm not going to do.

It isn't enough of a win con to justify what I am giving up, in my opinion anyway. It just needs too much clutter to support it.

I've been trying to come up with something that could serve as more Amulet of Vigor, but nothing seems to be fast enough.

Anyone have any further ideas to find it (reliably) or something? I'm not looking for dig cards, but actual tutors.

The only thing I ever used was Trinket Mage. But, like you said. too slow. however, I did pretty well at a GPT with weekend and I barely saw an amulet. It became less important when I want a Chalice of the Void or Leyline of Sanctity in my opening hand on game 2,3.Whit other tutors have you considered?

Trinket Mage is the cheapest tutor I could think of (there's other 3 CMC ones too). Unfortunately it seems like it's 4 mana to get an amulet out.

I've been looking at pseudo-amulets recently, and Stone-Seeder Hierophant has showed the most promise. It still feels a bit slow though, even though it's actually better than amulet if used properly.