A Handful of Dust
Standard
SCORE: 5 | 7 COMMENTS | 825 VIEWS
More Creatures, Unfortunately Jace —Dec. 22, 2017
After some more thinking and experimenting, I've decided to cut Compelling Argument in favor of Navigator's Ruin. Moving to a more creature-focused loadout means it's simply a much more reliable way to mill.
I'm also taking Baral, Chief of Compliance out for now, as Instants and Sorceries have suddenly become the minority in the deck.
I'm gonna experiment with replacing Hour of Promise with Benefaction of Rhonas, on the basis that the lower cost along with the 'and/or' part might fetch more value.
I feel the need to try a lower mana curve, so Overflowing Insight is out, Rogue Refiner is in.
Same goes for Vraska, Relic Seeker. I love Vraska, but the more aggressive direction this is taking, as well as her considerable price tag, means her slot is very provisionally taken by Jace, Cunning Castaway.
Now, I feel like I should specify that I have a deep, irrational loathing of Jace in general. He is the most boring vanilla turdboy who ever did walk the planes. So I expect I'll be finding some way to either include Liliana, or go RUG for Saheeli Rai.
I'm also looking at Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons as a possible promising include, assuming I can come up with a suite to support her. It would make a case for Grasping Dunes, at least.
Those are extremely good suggestions, saluma! Thank you very much for your input. <3
In solo playtesting I've found that by the time Primal Amulet Flip comes out, I'd rather be doing other things, so Baral, Chief of Compliance is actually the perfect thing to put there instead, since he could be cast with Nissa's ability too! The aforementioned playtesting left Nissa feeling like a dead draw a lot of the time since she's only there to pump out lands, so adding some creatures is gonna help that a lot.
Same goes for Ramunap Excavator! I hadn't considered that it might help straighten out manabase issues too. With four of those in the deck I'm even tempted to swap out Hour of Promise for Blossoming Defense. Hour of Promise has showed a lot of promise as a color-fixing tool and tutoring for utility lands, but as I tinker with the manabase it may no longer be necessary.
Originally I was on the fence about Fatal Push, but having reconsidered it I'm realizing that with Ipnu Rivulet I should theoretically be able to trigger its Revolt effect fairly consistently! Definite include.
Essence Scatter and/or Negate are worth considering, but to be honest I'm always kinda hesitant to play counterspells. They've never much been my style.
Fleet Swallower should absolutely be in this deck, and I've so far just left it out because of stubbornly clinging to Ipnu Rivulet as my primary mill thing. Worth keeping in mind, though. I'll give it a subsection in the Alternate Approaches part.
Thanks again for your advice! <3
saluma says... #1
Baral, Chief of Compliance, Fatal Push, Essence Scatter and/or Negate are great controll cards. Release the Fleet Swallower if you like mill. And Ramunap Excavator would probably help your manabase. Might even let you play with fewer lands in the deck.Good luck with the deck and keep making weird decks!
December 21, 2017 6:24 a.m.