Search options (Page 10 of 30)

IMO, i think the best options are to go full bant control, or take it more of a sylesnya route with advent of the wurm, voice, fleecemane.  splashing detention sphere for removal and sphinx's reve for draw power.

well right hence the current price, and why it's still rising...  it will drop after rotation for sure, but to assume long term it wont' rebound is silly... if you want to trade 2/1 mutavaults you should wait until then

I wouldn't recommend anyone trading down that hard on a card that will see play until the last day it's in standard and price memory will keep it at some decent measure of it's current value because people know their "good" cards will want to hang onto them.

but there are suckers born every minute.

just a note on your post. 

Mutavaults are eternal cards, they were seeing play in modern and legacy some before the reprint.  While its true that vaults will drop some after rotation.  2/1 value on modern, legacy is not a fair asking price. 

http://www.mtgstocks.com/cards/2974

during the entire ravnica block almost, it was hovering between $30 and $35 before reprint.  It will stabilize at about that price if not higher at some point after rotation, especially with the high interest in modern atm.

I just want to point out that Reid Duke could probably pilot a ham sandwhich to a 50/50 record at a large tournament.  And while I'm sure the deck is decent enough to win games, it hasn't put up any big numbers. 

Just be aware you're piloting a brew, albeit a brew by a pro, but still a brew and I haven't seen him or anyone else play it to any success.

this is true, but the lands are 10 bucks each for the most part, trading for multiple 10 dollar cards is easier than one $50 card... opals are pretty clutch in the list though, i don't think affinity would work without them.

If you want to play control in standard ATM then, its got to be the UW shell with verdicts, sphinx's,d-sphere, jace etc...

You're really just splashing green at that point for a kiora or two, plus some sideboard action with mistcutter hydras.  Green doesn't add a whole lot to the archetype. 

If you want to play control, UWx splash, red or black, is the way to go.  In red you get counterflux and izzet charm, which are both good in the mirror and provide some added flexibility. Black, gives you access to hero's downfall and more hard removal if you're facing a lot of creature/planes walker decks, ala, GR aggro.

You could alternatively do a bant midrange, that used the sylesnya token generators, advent, sylesnya charm, conclave, voice, etc... splash some blue for things like prime speaker, and kiora

There's also some fringe hex-proof potential within these colors, but I think that's not really a strong deck in the format.

which do you think appeals to you more?

I agree with TY, jamming in, cards to make it "unique" just takes away from the power of the deck.  The deck has been run and tested by countless pros that put far more time in the game than any of us. I'd trust in their reasoning for the choices.

I will say one thing though.  You can make meta dependent choices to strengthen the deck, this is where you're knowledge of what's being played in you're area comes in.  If you see lots of UWx control then splashing green or white is probably okay for enchantment removal.  If you see tons of aggro, then you may main deck bile blight.   That's all on you though and nothing we say can help you really get a feel for you meta.

if you're worried about opposing gods, mono black usually doesn't have trouble with them too much, with the removal suite they run... gild can be an option after they're turned on...

You talking about standard?

Junk has consistently underperformed this block.  I read a quote on reddit that said it was "much less effective than the sum of it's parts", and I don't think it's just the mana.  3 color not being terrible in those colors now with 2/3 scry lands plus shocks. 

A couple things that jump out at me about these decks.

1) black in 3 color in this format is dangerous because you hurt yourself more than other 3 color decks .  Thoughtseize is too good not to run + shocks = starting at 16 or less, even with life gain.

2) you lack the engine that mono black uses in underworld connections.  You're running a very similar 1-1 removal package and attempting to grind-out incremental card advantage with no way to consistently restock.

I'm not saying it can't do well, I just haven't seen it yet.  The cards are _good_ no doubt, but they just don't pull together like you would think they should.

my .02... this is just about mill as a strategy and not about problems with your deck specifically... IE: 20 lands in this style of deck is asking for problems.

Mill is an alternate win condition that some decks can employ, but it's not "how" you win the game.  You can't just mill your opponent to death and nothing else.  It's a bit like a burn deck, but it's much less efficient.  Here's some comparisons.  If you assume their deck is their "life" total then best case you go first and they start at 52 life... So we'll compare cards in a dimir mill deck and a RW burn deck.

so 52 = 20  , cards in deck (CID) vs actual life (AL).  here are some comparisons of mill cards vs direct damage cards because really that's what you're doing, you're attacking their life total directly.

Comparisons of like costed cards: mill vs burn

Shock, 1 CMC > 2 damage,  2/20 = 10% of their AL. 
Tome Scour, 1 CMC>  mill 5 , 5/52 = 9.6% of CID

Lightning Strike, 2 CMC > 3 damage, 3/20 = 15% of AL
Paranoid delusions, 2 CMC > mill 3, potential to cipher for more 3/52 =   5.8 % of their CID
Edit: i'd just like to say that the amount of creatures you need to run to make this effective are counter productive to the strategy and they're also very subject to removal.  Mutavault is actually a decent target for a cipher effect, but all the ciphers cost to much and are garbage in general.

(boros burn doesn't play any 3 CMC bur spells, so i chose an efficient creature the use)
Chandra's Pheonix, 3 CMC > 2 damage, 2/20, 10% of AL
Pilfered plans, 3 CMC > mill 2, 3.8% of CID
Edit: you draw 2, sure, but the pheonix's ability is more relevant to the game plan they're employing.  You're going to draw more mill that does nothing against their plan.

Storm Breath Dragon, 5 CMC > 4 damage, 4/20, 20% of AL
Jace, Memory Adpet, 5 CMC > 10 mill, 10/52, 19.2% of CID

if you look at it this way, even in my examples only a couple of the cards come close to providing the same "life total" reduction you get with straight burn.  Here's the kicker though... all the spells I mentioned also, impact the board, you can't remove or block opposing threats with any of these mill cards except jace, but he just dies to opposing creatures.

So in order to "burn" your opponent to death with mill you have to include a bunch of cards that don't impact or interact with the board at all.  Not to mention that, decks like UW control run elixir of immortality and just do a better ob of control than your deck does.  Aggro decks won't care if you mill them they're going to beat you before get there and your counter spells come online too late to stop their big threats with no board wipes.

So how do you "win" as mill?  You _have_ to control the board there's no other way to do it, and employ a powerful mill card to "finish" the game and be able to protect it.   Esper is the only deck can do that right now, and you _must_ run the UW shell in order to appropriately control the game and then use ashiok/jace to finish the job with mill... also keep in mind that cards like psychic strike while moving your mill plan forward do nothing to help you find answers to the next threat like dissolve does... I can't tell you the number of times i dissolved a threat only to scry away a land and top deck another answer.

Mono black splash U "might" be able to do this strategy with ashiok/phenax, but you'd be sacrificing some of the 1-1 answers it uses to grind out the game for alternate win condition it doesn't need to employ to win.

TLDR:  If you want to have fun games at the kitchen table with mill, by all means go ahead... but know that mill is a bad strategy, mill cards are bad for the value they provide and they don't do anything for your board.

friends don't let friends play mill... the more you know...