Wayward Guide-Beast is incredibly interesting. Always great to see cards that have a bunch of diverse applications without feeling like it'd be too oppressive/required to run in a deck.
Scourge of the Skyclaves is up there for my favorite cards this set solely because of its interaction with Nethroi. Nothing is more fun than reading "total 10 power" and then saying "haha nah I'm going to get 30 total power" in Commander.
Yeah all the Modal land spells are amazing, I'd be very surprised if they don't make a big impact on standard and other formats. Especially the bolt lands, which don't really have a downside for the most part.
Yeah this meta seems to be really polarizing for the most part. Personally I've been having a blast with it and I know a lot of others who have the same, but there's still a lot of games that go "oh well they had the nuts guess I die" which can feel pretty rough a lot of the time.
Over time card games evolve and change how they are played completely all the time, for better or for worse. Like a great example is with MTG's Modern format, where you have cards like Splinter Twin, which used to be a meta-defining card, being on the same banlist as a card like Hogaak, which for reference kills you on turn 3 like, 65%~ of the time. The format is still great to play and all, it's just different now than it was a couple years back and I don't think that is inherently bad.
As for going completely cold-turkey on the game, I'd totally recommend doing that. Playing a game that you don't find enjoyable is only going to make you become more jaded. Maybe next time a new expansion or nerfs come out, check out the meta and see if it's something you'd want to play again. Lord knows I've done that with this game numerous times. If the game never does recapture that feeling that made you fall in love with it originally, hopefully you can look back at the time spent fondly. All that said, hope to see you around still!
Yeah, Confounding Conundrum screams "We really don't want to ban Uro please hope this works to counter him". The card also can lead to a ton of fun things in eternal formats, stuff like Field of Ruin and Ghost Quarter are pretty dumb with it out.
I cannot describe how excited I am for Time Spiral Remastered. Easily one of my favorite sets and it can possibly bring two of my all-time favorite cards to Arena. Looking forward to it!
Edit: TSR isn't coming to Arena, my day is ruined, thanks WotC.
Glad you liked the latest issue! I can totally agree with Thassa being better in Azorius with Yorion as the latter is overall a stronger flicker commander in my opinion, as well as giving access to another color always being a strong selling point.
As for the cards mentioned, A lot of them are great but fall short in some way or another and were essentially the reason why they weren't included.
Gadwick is a great source of card draw once since we cannot continue to pay for X on his reentry. While him triggering once is still typically good enough, it is also a fairly big mana sink and in my testing, I usually had other things I wanted to spend my mana on.
Brazen Borrower was originally in the deck because it's a great tool for interaction and the body is pretty nice, but ended up dropping it in exchange for Essence Scatter since I was running into matchups where the body was not useful and the bounce effect was not worth running on its own.
Arcanist's Owl has two main issues, at least for this version of the deck. The first being that it is fairly light on artifacts and enchantments and so it would whiff on it a fair amount, and the second being that hybrid mana is weird and despite it being able to run in a mono-blue deck, it is considered to be blue and white. I can definitely see it doing work in an Azorius flicker deck if built in a specific way, but unfortunately, it cannot be in a deck with Thassa at the helm.
Solemn Simulacrum is great, already in the deck, and is an absolute powerhouse. He's one of my favorite cards in Commander and is definitely one of them here.
And yeah, hopefully, the set brings along a whole bunch of new tools to mess around with. Despite not enjoying this deck as much as I originally thought I would, I still absolutely love flicker decks and would be ecstatic if the archetype got more support in the upcoming set.
Absolutely! I'm going to see if there's any Commanders that are rotating out soon and cover them first, but if there's none that interesting, I'll make sure to cover Thassa before the new expansion drops.
While I love aggro decks a ton, I can definitely relate to trying to play in a meta that doesn't favor the type of decks I want to play. Probably the biggest example of this was when KFT launched and the only viable class was Druid for the most part. If the meta isn't something you enjoy, the best advice I can give is to take a break from the game for a bit and when nerfs happen or the meta shifts to being something different, try jumping back into the game. Taking breaks is perfectly fine in my opinion, especially when playing the game starts to feel like a chore instead of a fun activity.
As a quick sidenote, the meta still hasn't really stabilized yet either and there are a few decks more focused on control kicking around as well, such as Big Warrior which has been doing pretty decently at higher ranks. Not to mention both highlander priest and mage have been doing decent. Personally, I think it's too early to already pack in for this season, but ultimately its up to you to decide whether its worth your time or not.
After taking a bit of time to test out the newer cards, there were a few that felt pretty decent. Channeled Force felt very strong, as being able to somewhat wheel our hand as well as removing a planeswalker is very good in the deck, Two other cards that I spent a decent amount of time testing out were Niambi, Esteemed Speaker and Chevill, Bane of Monsters. Niambi is pretty neat as she lets us play Niv again without having him die and then pay an additional 2 mana for commander tax. Chevill on the other hand is occasionally overkill, but I've felt that it does a fairly solid job at making sure we don't run out of gas when we cannot rely on Niv to draw 3-5 cards. Oh and cultivate, card is solid and is essentially just better Circuitous Route for our deck.
For the changes, I'd probably do...
+Channeled Force
+Chevill/Niambi (both essentially do the same in the long run, I'd go with whichever you already have/want to play)
WotC plans bannings every month or so on Monday so if your planning on spending a lot of wild cards on a new deck, I'd recommend waiting until after the announcement. It's a bit questionable that they banned these cards so late in their standard lives but any archetype that dominates a format for such a long time is always on the menu of getting hit.
So glad to see T3feri gone. Easily up there as apart of my least favorite cards ever made. With ramp losing a good portion of its support, it might bring me to play more standard again after taking a fairly big hiatus.
At the time of writing the review I was fairly certain of Glide being better than Skull of Gul'dan is just cheaper and faster to cast. However, once Voracious Reader was revealed, every class has a lot better reload and so Skull allowing you to dump your hand out faster afterwards to still get the effect of the reader seems like it could be pretty valuable. I still think Glide has a place in some deck, but it's definitely not as black-and-white as it was before.
I'm not sure on how consistently you can get this card activated on turn three but if it turns out you can do it somewhat consistently, I can see this card putting in a lot of work. It's a pretty decent card in zoo but I'm not sold on the Soul Fragments being sold on the idea yet.
9 mana with no impact on the board seems really sketchy. This combined with the fact that there isn't any good ways of cheating it into play and that Zephrys is literally the most played card in every format, I don't have any expectations for this card.
[Hearthstone Card (Dark Bomb) Not Found] was a decent removal tool back when GvG was in standard and this is almost strictly better than that. My issue with this though is that I'm not sure where exactly you would want to run it. Obviously in a dedicated Soul Fragment you'd run them but I don't see Demon Hunter ever wanting to include this since they can just use weapons/Twin Slice and their hero power and in Control Warlock decks, the ability to target spells face is pretty important and I don't think you'd cut a card just to give yourself a bit more healing.
Master of Ceremonies wasn't even that bad of a card to be honest. The issue mainly boiled down to the fact there was so little spell damage minions that could come down turn 2 that it was near impossible to get it to be a 3 mana 6/4 on turn 3. I remember making a deck ages ago with two of her and two Arcane Blast and when the stars aligned and I got to activate her battlecry, the deck could actually work decently.
Here's hoping that this time around there's enough spell damage support to make the whole package work.
As much as I enjoyed playing this list, a lot of the cards are rotating out so it might not be the best investment to build up to. Hopefully WotC will put in a "Friendly Brawl" (or just call it by Historic Brawl since thats what it is) so then the deck can get more mileage.
Wayward Guide-Beast is incredibly interesting. Always great to see cards that have a bunch of diverse applications without feeling like it'd be too oppressive/required to run in a deck.
Scourge of the Skyclaves is up there for my favorite cards this set solely because of its interaction with Nethroi. Nothing is more fun than reading "total 10 power" and then saying "haha nah I'm going to get 30 total power" in Commander.
Yeah all the Modal land spells are amazing, I'd be very surprised if they don't make a big impact on standard and other formats. Especially the bolt lands, which don't really have a downside for the most part.
Yeah this meta seems to be really polarizing for the most part. Personally I've been having a blast with it and I know a lot of others who have the same, but there's still a lot of games that go "oh well they had the nuts guess I die" which can feel pretty rough a lot of the time.
Over time card games evolve and change how they are played completely all the time, for better or for worse. Like a great example is with MTG's Modern format, where you have cards like Splinter Twin, which used to be a meta-defining card, being on the same banlist as a card like Hogaak, which for reference kills you on turn 3 like, 65%~ of the time. The format is still great to play and all, it's just different now than it was a couple years back and I don't think that is inherently bad.
As for going completely cold-turkey on the game, I'd totally recommend doing that. Playing a game that you don't find enjoyable is only going to make you become more jaded. Maybe next time a new expansion or nerfs come out, check out the meta and see if it's something you'd want to play again. Lord knows I've done that with this game numerous times. If the game never does recapture that feeling that made you fall in love with it originally, hopefully you can look back at the time spent fondly. All that said, hope to see you around still!
Yeah, Confounding Conundrum screams "We really don't want to ban Uro please hope this works to counter him". The card also can lead to a ton of fun things in eternal formats, stuff like Field of Ruin and Ghost Quarter are pretty dumb with it out.
I cannot describe how excited I am for Time Spiral Remastered. Easily one of my favorite sets and it can possibly bring two of my all-time favorite cards to Arena. Looking forward to it!
Edit: TSR isn't coming to Arena, my day is ruined, thanks WotC.
Glad you liked the latest issue! I can totally agree with Thassa being better in Azorius with Yorion as the latter is overall a stronger flicker commander in my opinion, as well as giving access to another color always being a strong selling point.
As for the cards mentioned, A lot of them are great but fall short in some way or another and were essentially the reason why they weren't included.
And yeah, hopefully, the set brings along a whole bunch of new tools to mess around with. Despite not enjoying this deck as much as I originally thought I would, I still absolutely love flicker decks and would be ecstatic if the archetype got more support in the upcoming set.
Who could've seen this one coming.
Absolutely! I'm going to see if there's any Commanders that are rotating out soon and cover them first, but if there's none that interesting, I'll make sure to cover Thassa before the new expansion drops.
While I love aggro decks a ton, I can definitely relate to trying to play in a meta that doesn't favor the type of decks I want to play. Probably the biggest example of this was when KFT launched and the only viable class was Druid for the most part. If the meta isn't something you enjoy, the best advice I can give is to take a break from the game for a bit and when nerfs happen or the meta shifts to being something different, try jumping back into the game. Taking breaks is perfectly fine in my opinion, especially when playing the game starts to feel like a chore instead of a fun activity.
As a quick sidenote, the meta still hasn't really stabilized yet either and there are a few decks more focused on control kicking around as well, such as Big Warrior which has been doing pretty decently at higher ranks. Not to mention both highlander priest and mage have been doing decent. Personally, I think it's too early to already pack in for this season, but ultimately its up to you to decide whether its worth your time or not.
After taking a bit of time to test out the newer cards, there were a few that felt pretty decent. Channeled Force felt very strong, as being able to somewhat wheel our hand as well as removing a planeswalker is very good in the deck, Two other cards that I spent a decent amount of time testing out were Niambi, Esteemed Speaker and Chevill, Bane of Monsters. Niambi is pretty neat as she lets us play Niv again without having him die and then pay an additional 2 mana for commander tax. Chevill on the other hand is occasionally overkill, but I've felt that it does a fairly solid job at making sure we don't run out of gas when we cannot rely on Niv to draw 3-5 cards. Oh and cultivate, card is solid and is essentially just better Circuitous Route for our deck.
For the changes, I'd probably do...
+Channeled Force
+Chevill/Niambi (both essentially do the same in the long run, I'd go with whichever you already have/want to play)
+Cultivate
-Leyline Prowler
-Ravager Wurm
-Circuitous Route
WotC plans bannings every month or so on Monday so if your planning on spending a lot of wild cards on a new deck, I'd recommend waiting until after the announcement. It's a bit questionable that they banned these cards so late in their standard lives but any archetype that dominates a format for such a long time is always on the menu of getting hit.
So glad to see T3feri gone. Easily up there as apart of my least favorite cards ever made. With ramp losing a good portion of its support, it might bring me to play more standard again after taking a fairly big hiatus.
At the time of writing the review I was fairly certain of Glide being better than Skull of Gul'dan is just cheaper and faster to cast. However, once Voracious Reader was revealed, every class has a lot better reload and so Skull allowing you to dump your hand out faster afterwards to still get the effect of the reader seems like it could be pretty valuable. I still think Glide has a place in some deck, but it's definitely not as black-and-white as it was before.
I'm not sure on how consistently you can get this card activated on turn three but if it turns out you can do it somewhat consistently, I can see this card putting in a lot of work. It's a pretty decent card in zoo but I'm not sold on the Soul Fragments being sold on the idea yet.
9 mana with no impact on the board seems really sketchy. This combined with the fact that there isn't any good ways of cheating it into play and that Zephrys is literally the most played card in every format, I don't have any expectations for this card.
[Hearthstone Card (Dark Bomb) Not Found] was a decent removal tool back when GvG was in standard and this is almost strictly better than that. My issue with this though is that I'm not sure where exactly you would want to run it. Obviously in a dedicated Soul Fragment you'd run them but I don't see Demon Hunter ever wanting to include this since they can just use weapons/Twin Slice and their hero power and in Control Warlock decks, the ability to target spells face is pretty important and I don't think you'd cut a card just to give yourself a bit more healing.
Master of Ceremonies wasn't even that bad of a card to be honest. The issue mainly boiled down to the fact there was so little spell damage minions that could come down turn 2 that it was near impossible to get it to be a 3 mana 6/4 on turn 3. I remember making a deck ages ago with two of her and two Arcane Blast and when the stars aligned and I got to activate her battlecry, the deck could actually work decently.
Here's hoping that this time around there's enough spell damage support to make the whole package work.
I'm glad you enjoy the series!
As much as I enjoyed playing this list, a lot of the cards are rotating out so it might not be the best investment to build up to. Hopefully WotC will put in a "Friendly Brawl" (or just call it by Historic Brawl since thats what it is) so then the deck can get more mileage.
Oops, thanks for catching that, it should be working fine now if you are still interested in the decklist.
Also glad to hear your a fan! I have no signs of stopping anytime soon so hopefully I can keep bringing out articles you enjoy!