soulknife

I think this is quite well done. I'll point straight out that vendetta is strictly better than devour in shadow. Although I don't really like either card just because I like my life. It occurs to me that Ancients Stirring would probably do very well in this deck. It pulls out your colorless win conditions that much faster.

if you aren't trying to stay standard legal than I Love wrap in vigor in just about any large creature based deck.

valakut will be far too slow in this deck to be that useful. Especially when compared to fast aggro decks.

I'd replace them with evolving wilds, in order to max out the zektar shrine expeditions faster. On that same note, evolving wilds would also help other landfall creatures such as plated geopede.

You are running 16 instant or sorcery speed low costed efficient mill cards. As well as 6 milling creatures and a grindstone. I can just about guarantee that by the time you can cast traumatize that it will mill just as much as a glimpse or an archive trap but for more mana.

My suggestion would be to drop the traumatize in favor of Painter's Servants. Since, well, they are an infinite combo with the grindstone that mills out immediately.

For your sideboard I'd suggest removal of all sorts. Stuff that you can put in when you find yourself facing a fast aggro deck. So cards like shrivel, consume the meek, damnation, doom blade, unsummon, negate etc.

You know I've been trying to understand this comment for the last week or so and I still don't get it.

gotta say. I'm not that enamored of conflagrate. It's the half of x burn rate that I just don't like. Fireball is strictly better in just about any sense in this case.

Also, I'd like to point out that with only four creatures in this deck, and no way to find them the likelihood that you'll end up with a hand full of enchantments and nothing to put them on is pretty high.

For that reason I'd suggest trimming down the enchanment selection (blanchwood armor isn't really all that fantastic if you aren't in mono green really) and include something like tooth and nail, or my personal fave Conclave at Dawn.

Strengthening that, dropping the conflagrates for something like Mesa Enchantress or Kor Spiritdancer would help you mitigate the inherent card disadvantage of playing auras. Aura Gnarlid becomes a murderous Machine when enchanted, especially with totem auras. Now I'm thoroughly aware that this will lessen the theme and impact that the twinclaws have on your deck but I bet you a beast token that it will run much smoother.

you know what. I think you actually have enough mana ramping in the main deck that you could consider a sideboard that's a bit more aggressive. I've got a fairly similar deck and for the most part I've been pretty underwhelmed by Khalni Heart Expedition.

As such. My suggestion is to replace them with two Eldrazi Monuments. That way even if you don't necessarily draw into some of your innately larger threats you can make your mana accelerators very large threats themselves.

Nonetheless good job.

better yet, since you're only at 56 cards (in a typically 60 card format) then add the halimar depths straight on. Then you'll be running 40% mana which is very good for a deck that involves landfall triggers.

I'd drop the Dread Drone in favor of something cheaper like Bloodthrone Vampire. Then you'll receive a double benefit from sacrificing your spawn.

I'm curious about your choice of lands. The vast majority of your spells cost two or less, and you aren't running any card draw beyond Jace so I'm curious why you'd have Reliquary Tower. The likelihood is that you'll be able to play your hand out very quickly and then end up in topdecking mode while you use Laquatus's activated ability to keep on milling.

More over, the tower has a negative interaction with dreamborn muse, and with it, if you do for some reason try and take advantage of the no hand size limitation you'll end up milling yourself for more than you will your opponent.

My suggestion would be to drop the reliquary tower's in favor of a playset of Halimar depths. Rearranging the top three cards of your deck is never a bad thing.

the aqueducts and the fetch lands have a very strong interaction with landfall based decks so I'd keep them. This deck seems fine, although having a bit more Exile in there couldn't hurt (seeing as circu is the only one).

Competitively I'd suggest replacing the dimir infiltrators with scrib nibblers.

on the other hand I'd suggest putting in stronghold rats and swarmyard. Because swarmyard can also regenerate squirrel tokens. And that's pretty crazy.

Constructively. I'd suggest something along the lines of reanimation. If you are pitching permanents to strengthen your others you'll end up with tempo equality. Think of it like this, if you play three 1/1 creatures, and sack two of them to strengthen one by +2/+2 than you're still doing the same amount of damage each turn.

Lilliana Vess's ultimate, rise from the grave, dead reckoning. They may seem like Win More cards at times but they will definitely strengthen your position. Especially in the case that some cards like bloodthrone vampire are pretty much dead on arrival. They're clearly game winning threats so they'll be eating removal spells like Ikea furniture always seem to be missing parts.

For example, one of the only common decks that's currently running around in standard that involves heavy sacrificing is the time sieve deck. While the extra turns certainly start pushing the game into a dominant position, its Open the Vaults returning everything that was sacked to the field that actually Wins the Game.

To give an easier to understand approximation. That's like running a sixty card deck with 16 land.

I think your mana count may be a little low. You're running 27% mana when a typical deck (even of sixty card) runs from 30 to 40%

Are you worried about getting mana screwed?

Alright than. My suggestion would be to use growth spasm. It's a rampant growth that gives you an eldrazi spawn and is common. If nothing else it may stall for a turn while you get Valakut online.

no point in pointing out Scapeshift I suppose is there? You're using sylvan scrying so you aren't trying to be type 2 legal or anything like that.

That's funny, although the likelihood is pretty damn small since not only do you need a perfect hand, but your relying on the manamorphonse cantrip to reveal three more manamorphose and the double cleave.

Nonetheless, mana ramp cards to pump a kiln fiend seem like a no brainer to me so good job.

Converta turtle? Sounds like a ride at disney land.

I chose Jace because he's a strong card. He's significantly easier to cast than Bolas (which is a bit hypocritical considering there's cruel ultimatum's in there I know). If he mills I've no problem with that. I think more often than not Roiling Terrain will be the kill card in this deck.

Keep in mind I don't just copy and paste top decks. I built on the colors of the grixis shards. If there's any similarities between my decks and Top 8 stuff its because they just happen to be good cards.

That being said, removal and control run right up each other's alley's so I don't see why "there's no place for red in control."

To answer your question about cast through time.

I love cast through time....in my edh deck where the chances of playing it are that much higher. I think in a typical game its pretty expensive, taking up mana you might otherwise be keeping open to play control spells.

That said I think this deck looks fine. Not sure what I'd cut to bring it down to 60 cards, probably the tome scour's strangely enough. Since the crab runs on landfall I'd also suggest consolidating the negate's into the deprive's since the deprive can counter more things, and it bounces a land (something you'd actually Like to do oddly enough)

The other card I'd suggest cutting would be Jace. Yes Jace is great. He's a turn three howling mine and then goes off on turn seven if he isn't contested or shot up, Looking at your list I suspect the game'd be over before than. If it was jace the mind sculptor I'd say keep it for sure and cut a keening stone. I only see people run the old Jace in runeflare trap decks and otherwise he's just more money.

Our wallets will appreciate your recent efforts.


I also thank you for correcting my opinion that blightning was uncommon. (apparently the store stiffed me, since I paid $2 for each)