Grim-Grin needs reassembling skeletons.
Permalink
Great main board. I feel like the sideboard could use some help. Trinket Mage into Nihil Bomb after an opponent's alchemy is pretty nice. I normally run surgical, but only because I hate getting leaked more than once. You should SB a Karn for late game trumps. I've never liked revoke because it's speed kills it. I'd swap at least one for a ratchet bomb to sit at a healthy number of counters till I want to blow it up. The curse is def to high cc. Add more DOJ if you're worried about creature heavy opposition. You could even splash heartless summoning in this deck and venser it out when you attack. Oh and spellskite instead of more counters in the SB. Gotta keep your fatties protected :)
Is Sundial in there just for Vat?
I haven't seen a lot of spoilers, but mindshrieker is going to be the next cawblade.
Great synergies and I'm always a fan of venser decks. I think 4 probes is a little overkill, that and they dont help shuffle the deck. I'd go 2 ponder/probe. I'll help playtest this deck once things rotate. Sidenote: karn did very well for me in u/b control. I may use him over elspeth because of his spot removal.
Oh and you need to run colonnade until it rotates. Couple of tectonic edge too.
I agree with papaja. Timely reinforcements has always bought u/w control enough time to clinch. Run crusader Mb. SB timely, one of each sword, and/or mimic vat. Nothing like a surprise crusader or bladehold plus tokens for 3 :)
I like the lawkeepers and the assassins, but it seems sphere of the suns is a tad late at 3 colorless and tapped. Better artifact - mimic vat. Played it at the qualifier in Richmond. People hate that card. It's very abusive. That and you could make VERY good use of almost every creature, especially grave titan 6/6 and 4 zombie tokens for 3? Yes please. I'd say cut sphere entirely. Put 2 vats and 2 more fetch lands if you're worried about lands.
It obviously needed some help and didn't know where to make cuts. Thx for the suggestions, EaterOfDays. I tried a mindcrank b/r that didn't work out very well. Goblin guide was for bloodchief. All D.D. could help bloodchief/phoenix. I basically wanted a lux deck with a lot of control so t4 didn't seem so far away. Then unwinding clock and the clasps could go to work. I was actually thinking of shrine of burning rage as a finisher. I feel like unwinding clock + clasp = quicker and endless ammo for lux, plus the flexibility of colorless costs. I was also a fan of thrummingbird, but its very fragile and somewhat unreliable. All in all, lux decks fall in combat, so I chose colors to help it. I'm gonna do some more thinning though.
This deck has some solid players, but some dont make the cut in my opinion. The day after I bought Sorin thinking he was useful, I banished him to the rare binder. He doesn't protect himself, he costs a bunch, and obliterator/wurm makes him look like a joke. My opinion, focus on spot removal and incorporate more tactics like mimic vat to "steal" what you kill. Check out my deck and let me know what you think :) http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=214492
Like the venser variant! I'm a big venser fan myself, but prefer dirty tactics to help things get thru. Check out my link and let me know what you think :) I'm trying to make mine tournament playable. Deck link: http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=214492
And then there's the sideboard I completely over looked. I think I'm going to go with Choking Fumes to battle hoard/zoo/signal pest. But then again, I could just SB some Livewire Lash and target my own creatures with spells/abilities to do some DD. Stack venser/lawkeeper abilities for 4 direct damage. I think DoJ needs to come out since I'm getting some important creatures out. Probably SB some Torpor Orb to battle Caw Blade (and twin?)
I feel like Stonehorn only addresses their combat phase whereas lawkeeper can take out blockers and get gideons kill ability off.
How does this NOT work. It's got early, mid, and late game strats with lifegain, stall, and emergency spot removal. It's awesome imo.
This isn't a charge counter deck.
Personally, I wouldn't mind using TTF if I was running Mimic Vat to steal the stuff I was killing :) thought about plugging that in? In my U/W deck, I do lawkeeper with livewire lash for some random direct damage to fight off the twin strategy.
I'm REALLY interested I'm the WUG Venser deck you ran into at FNM. I'm currently working on my venser deck to keep it competitive with the fast tempo decks out there. http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=214492 Sidenote: I'd like to see which idea works better, your Turn to Frog or my Gideon's Lawkeepers :)
There are many decks that gain tempo quick by t3/t4. Condemn may be a viable option or even some dispense justice. I've got a couple options for early game tempo control. I'm considering choking fumes from NPH or a splash of livewire lash for mid-to-late game control. I even have some mill to take care of top decking opponents. Check out my deck and let me know what you think :) http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=214492