The deck is pretty straight forward, and I even had some success with it pre gatecrash. Basically kill things and land the big Jace to win through milling them, this plan is backed up by the 2 drownyards. Or kill stuff and have one of the garruks take over the game. Usually it wins through mill but I've won games off the back of the Garruks aswell
I've gone through gatecrash and besides the simic leader who underperformed while testing and shocks there wasn't much else to gain from the new set hence why I didn't list anything but I'm open to suggestions that I may have overlooked.
These are some of the more odd card choices I've been questioned on before so I figured I'd go over why they're played.
Barter in Blood plays the role of my sweeper over Mutilate because Mutilate was usually for -2 when it was played, as a result it did less work against bant hexproof.
The only draw spell is Forbidden Alchemy because with the snapcasters I don't mind binning some spells to find a Jace or Garruk a turn or 2 faster.
I'm open to all suggestions so unload them, budget isn't an issue.
P.S. This was my first attempt at making a thread so hopefully I didn't screw it all up.
27 lands is to help ensure I hit my land drops which I need in this deck. However I'm open to ideas which ones would you cut down on.
Lili is weaker in this deck but normally I just pitch a spell that I flash back later with snapcaster
Ironically enough most of my testing as been against b/r zombie and g/w humans since thats the popular deck right now in my area, however I've been doing a lot of testing against what I believe is most of the top decks. Here is my records and notes on some of those matchups
B/R Zombies 17-9 The underperfomers here are Liliana of the Veil and Garruk, the Primal Hunter because he is just to slow and Dissipate because they play multiple caverns. I sideboard out those cards aswell as Ultimate Price . I bring in 2 Deathrite Shaman 3 Vampire Nighthawk and 2 Dispel The Deathrite are brought in to start eating gravecrawlers and messengers, while nighthawk is a reliable blocker. Dispel is here mainly to counter their ultimate prices on my nighthawk.
Mono Red 10-8 Underperfomers include Lili, Big Garruk, and Dissipate so thats what I take out for 2 Ultimate Price and 3 Nighthawks (Ultimate Price is probably one of my best cards this matchup hitting hellrider before attacks is a great feeling)
G/W Aggro 14-11 Underperfomers include Lili, Big Garruk, Dissipate. I board in Appetite for Brains 1 additional Ultimate Price and 3 Vampire Nighthawks. the only card I consistently lost too is when they go midrangey and start dropping Sigarda, Host of Herons
Bant Control 9-9-3 I'm at a loss here the only card I consistenly have being bad is Big Garruk so this is still a work in progress
Bant Hexproof 6-1(Least Tested so results may not be set in stone yet) My maindeck crushes this one, Between Barter in Blood, Lili, and Ultimate pricing their Silverblade Paladin, they seem to just run out of threats. I haven't quite gotten sideboarding down against this deck yet.
Both big planeswalkers are rather durdly against aggro. My opponnents just always seem to have hellriders when I land a Big Garruk on the board, and they seem out of gas when I land Big Jace. I plan to do a lot of testing tonight with different mixes of 5 mana cost walkers and see what works best I may even try Vraska out, plusing her on an empty board seems good to start doing vindicates everyturn.
I agree on swapping out lili for a tribute or the new one from gatecrash that costs 2 and your opponent gains life from it which I don't think would be a drawback if I'm milling. I intend to test both tonight
I actually cut 2 Drowned Catacomb because I cut lili and kept having too many enter tapped lands for 1 ghost quarter and a swamp, and it's goldfished well I'll be doing a few gauntlets with it later tonight for actual testing.I don't think I want to give up a drownyard but thats because I have a lot of bant decks around me and double drownyard has won me a lot of games.
I've had games where Jace, Architect was horrible but I've had more games where he really does work for me. Barter in Blood is one of my best cards here and he helps find one of the four copies in the deck. I won't go up in copies of Jace, Architect but I feel like he earned his place as a 2of maybe 3. I'd be open to cut him but I really don't know what to swap him with off the top of my head.
Don't the extra copies of the planeswalkers just become dead cards in your hand if you already have one out? It think your thinking to linearly and in effect you are excluding the possibilites of things not going your way. I think you are on the right track with farseeks and deathrite shaman. I think you need to ramp to beat your opponent to the punch of getting your threats online. Combo Evolving wilds with Shaman, and consider Arbor elf or Urban Evolution
Don't the extra copies of the planeswalkers just become dead cards in your hand if you already have one out? It think your thinking to linearly and in effect you are excluding the possibilites of things not going your way. I think you are on the right track with farseeks and deathrite shaman. I think you need to ramp to beat your opponent to the punch of getting your threats online. Combo Evolving wilds with Shaman, and consider Arbor elf or Urban Evolution
With planeswalkers do you mean is it bad to have one version of garruk out when I have another garruk in hand. If thats what your saying then no, I've never really had an issue with that before if I have a Garruk Relentless on the board and my opponnent doesn't deal with it there's no reason to play the Garruk, Primal Hunter because I'm winning off of Relentless. Same goes for Jace except when I have little Jace I tend to just minus him so he's usually only out for 2 turns. Lili of the Veil is also no longer a factor since I cut her for 2 tribute to hunger (Courtesy of PandamanX64)
Deathrite shaman isn't here for the mana ability because it wouldn't be consistent enough. Its here to fight off reanimantor, zombie variants, mono red, and snapcaster decks.
Urban Evolution was actually terrible here in testing. Bant decks want that more than me because they can gain more life with sphinx revealation.
Arbor elf while not terrible just didn't perform well enough, it's a terrible topdeck and I would only want to play it on turn 1 because farseek is better turn 2, then turn 3 drop a 4 mana planeswalker, then after that I'm either playing game winning spells(hopefully) or disruption
No with the planeswalkers I mean, if you are staring down a huge threat and you really need a way out and u have a little jace on the field and your next draw is an unplayable big or another little jace. I just think it could be smarter to have more versatile spells, and what are you talking about testing? It sounds like you are solitairing this deck.
and fyi deathrite could be used as a source of ramp if you had a way to put lands into grave ie wilds, and you would effectively thin your deck. Also ThoughtScouring your opponent could drop some fuel for shaman, while getting through your deck.
